Tertiary Scholarships and Loans Service (TSLS) CEO Hasmukh Lal says students under the Tertiary Education Loans Scheme (TELS) owe the government $571,815,020.
He said as of May 31 this year, TSLS had invested a total of $603 million and the total recovery was around $23 million.
He said of the $571 million outstanding, $347 million was collectable and they were looking at around 29,762 students who should be repaying their TELS debt.
Fiji Revenue and Customs Service (FRCS) CEO Mark Dixon said the ability of students to pay their debt was improving because of the increasing employment opportunities post-COVID-19.
Responding to queries about students who could not do so, he said they had a very comprehensive debt management unit.
“We work with those individuals, we have a very comprehensive debt management unit here,” he said.
“We look at all those issues around why they can’t pay, we work with them to look at time to pay arrangements, and we stay with them on the journey.”
Mr Dixon said there was always some debt which could not be repaid.
“And at some point in time, if there is a very aged debt, I’m talking like five or 10 years old, then we’ll look at that and we’ll make a case by case determination.
“And sometimes we write that debt off because we have to balance the cost of collecting versus the cost of the debt in the first place.”
He encouraged people to pay their fair share of tax and for students to repay their loans.
“Now we’re seeing the economic growth across the whole of the economy, we’re very much focused on debt management.
“It’s a very important task of FRCS because ultimately, if a debt is owned to FRCS than a debt is owed to Fiji.
“It’s a very important message that we want people to pay the fair and equitable amount of tax or repay their student loans, because ultimately that goes back into funding the national budget.”
