THE Tertiary Scholarship and Loans Service (TSLS) scheme has implemented the Travel and Bond Clearance and Recoveries function, effective from January 2.
The signing of the handover agreement was conducted between the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service (FCRS) and TSLS in Suva yesterday.
The arrangement is expected to cause less discomfort to students and graduates as they were first required to obtain statements and confirmation of bond duration letters from the scheme and go through FCRS for travel release and bond clearance.
FCRS CEO Udit Singh said with the handover, they had assisted about a thousand students with travel releases, clearance of payments and other requests for the past seven years and would therefore no longer accept any requests from students regarding TSLS matters.
“I wish the TSLS well in administering the additional responsibilities,” Mr Singh said.
“I have been informed that our team received an average of more than 20 to 30 travel release requests a day and working overtime monitoring payments on most days.
“The team had been administering the TSLS and Toppers scheme functions which include receiving loans, payments from students, providing travel releases to students going abroad, providing clearances for full repayment of loan and completion of bond services, liaising with the Fiji Immigration Department, bond and payment reconciliation, and refund of overpayment by students.
“I must say that within the past seven years, our team had worked extremely hard to provide excellent services to all students who had come to FCRS for assistance.”
TSLS CEO Hasmukh Lal said the transfer would reduce the processing turnaround time of 5-7 working days to 1-3 working days as they remained committed to expanding service delivery through digital means.
“TSLS will also be working with the FNPF to sign agreements on information sharing to ease the process of bond clearance,” Mr Lal said.
“Students applying for bond clearance are required to submit a FNPF statement to provide evidence of employment.
“Once the agreement is signed, TSLS will obtain this information directly from FNPF.”
