Some 60,000 government officials still owe the government student loans they took while studying



BANGKOK: -- About 60,000 government officials, including 1,000 currently working at the Finance Ministry, still owe the government for the student loans they took while studying, said Finance Permanent Secretary Somchai Satjapong, in his capacity as chairman of the Student Loan Fund.

He disclosed that many of these 60,000 student loan recipients did not repay the loans because they mistakenly thought that the loans were grants and they need not have to pay back to the government.

However, he said that there are others who intentionally skipped the repayments. To deal with this group of loan recipients, he said he had instructed authorities in 20 ministries and 50 state enterprises to prepare their respective lists about them.

Mr Somchai said this group of loan recipients could notify their respective organizations about their willingness to repay the loans within February 15 after which they will have to sign an MoU within March and the first repayment will commence on September 30.

Those who refuse to pay up will lose their fringe benefits and face a fine of 100 percent of the amount owede t.

It was disclosed that 4.5 million people have taken student loans and, of these, two million of them still owe the government.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/content/150409


-- Thai PBS 2016-02-11

I can almost hear the sound of the forthcoming implosion from within the central bureaucracy.

I also wonder, what are these 'fringe benefits' they're talking about ?

Since they were *student loans* you would assume that meant they were educated enough to read the small print. With interest rates in Thailand, that's gonna hurt their pocket.

Mistakenly thought the loans were grants, convenient, weak but hardly surprising.

How many members have loaned money only to find the recipient never bothers to repay and has no attention of doing so ? I was caught once, luckily a very trivial amount but it taught me a lesson as did the look I got when casually mentioned that dirty, obscene and totally unacceptable word ' repayment '.

Just typical Thai mentality. Ever loan money to your spouse's relatives and then never to hear from them again?

Just typical Thai mentality. Ever loan money to your spouse's relatives and then never to hear from them again?

.No

Even the neighbours pay back loans without chasing having to ask

Maybe I live in good part of Thailand or just lend to honest hard working folks

Even the neighbours pay back loans without chasing. Do you live in cloud cuckoo land or what?

Every village, town city has people who never pay back loans.

My wife lent a 20 year friend 500 baht 5 years ago. That lady avoids us like we have some dreadful disease.

Lost a friend over 500 baht.

Even the neighbours pay back loans without chasing. Do you live in cloud cuckoo land or what?

Every village, town city has people who never pay back loans.

My wife lent a 20 year friend 500 baht 5 years ago. That lady avoids us like we have some dreadful disease.

Lost a friend over 500 baht.

If you unloaded someone impersonating a 'friend' for only 500 Baht then you got off very cheaply.

Don't complain....you're lucky.

Edited February 11, 201610 yr by Hayduke

Just typical Thai mentality. Ever loan money to your spouse's relatives and then never to hear from them again?

Nope, I'm not stupid enough to loan money to anyone for any reason.

Just typical Thai mentality. Ever loan money to your spouse's relatives and then never to hear from them again?

Thai mentality? You must be joking. Once again many farang in Thailand can only see what's happening here and totally ignore comparable issues in Farang World. Many farang nanny states simply put the cost of education directly on the taxpayer or burgeoning government debt.

In the US student loans amount to more than 1 Trillion dollars. That puts the total second only to home mortgages in private debt. And a staggering number of them are making no effort to repay the amounts borrowed. Many economists see this unmanageable debt as a genuine threat to the economy.

Two-thirds, that’s right, two-thirds of students graduating from American colleges and universities are graduating with some level of debt. How much? According to The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS)Project on Student Debt, the average borrower will graduate $26,600 in the red. While we’ve all heard the screaming headlines of graduates with crippling debt of $100,000 or more, this is the case for only about 1% of graduates. That said, one in 10 graduates accumulate more than $40,000.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/specialfeatures/2013/08/07/how-the-college-debt-is-crippling-students-parents-and-the-economy/#6828bc121a41

Nearly 7 million Americans have gone at least a year without making a payment on their federal student loans, a high level of default that suggests a widening swath of households are unable or unwilling to pay back their school debt.

As of July, 6.9 million Americans with student loans hadn’t sent a payment to the government in at least 360 days, quarterly data from the Education Department showed this past week. That was up 6%, or 400,000 borrowers, from a year earlier.Millions of other borrowers are months behind but haven’t hit the 360-day threshold that the government defines as a default.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/about-7-million-americans-havent-paid-federal-student-loans-in-at-least-a-year-1440175645

ONLY one person has ever repaid me back monies lent, yep all of them full of promises,10,000 baht, loaned repaid by 5 visits to my condo. she was nice, he he

Even the neighbours pay back loans without chasing. Do you live in cloud cuckoo land or what?

Every village, town city has people who never pay back loans.

My wife lent a 20 year friend 500 baht 5 years ago. That lady avoids us like we have some dreadful disease.

Lost a friend over 500 baht.

A while ago we met a group of friends from my wife during her universityperiod. She got 2000 baht from one of them who lives in the US.

He had lent it 10 years ago but still remembered it, so did my wife. It's peanuts for him now though but at least he gave it without asking.

Make all these people who owe money teach at Mahidol University.

These are government officials and the constitutional referendum is approaching.

I would imagine that Prayut would gladly cancel or extend far out their student loan debts in exchange for their active participation to promote Meechai's draft constitution.

Individual student debt is terrible here. My wifes sisters son is 6000 UK pounds in debt to teach maths in a school where he is only paid 15.000 bht a month. The first 3000 had to be paid by a certain date or they would charge interest. My wife paid it of course but how an earth can it cost so much. Because of the prestige of being a teacher here and if they are serious about socail mobility the government should be handing out grants to the brightest kids from poor backgrounds. I know of one young lad who is also a teacher but not from a poor family the government paid for him in the form of a grant to visit the states and Hong Kong. But his family are all connected and have money.

Edited February 11, 201610 yr by bim

Just typical Thai mentality. Ever loan money to your spouse's relatives and then never to hear from them again?

Weeeeel, that's one way to get rid of them

wow, first there was one, who gets the publicity,now there are 60,000 , like a plague if you ask me,are any going to repay their debts, well we all know that answer,

60,000 government officials. 2 million overall.

We should vent our fury at Harvard for sure.

60,000 government officials. 2 million overall.

We should vent our fury at Harvard for sure.

Harvard's case was not a study loan, but a bonded scholarship and the recipient ran away from fulfilling the terms of the bond.

ONLY one person has ever repaid me back monies lent, yep all of them full of promises,10,000 baht, loaned repaid by 5 visits to my condo. she was nice, he he

Are you trying to tell us the she was a he?

Don't understand a grant from a loan? Sounds like US students these days!

What's against an automatic monthly deduction from the salary, just like social premium, taxes and so ?

What's against an automatic monthly deduction from the salary, just like social premium, taxes and so ?

Google *promise*.....you just need a pulse and a paycheck to qualify....for a relative amount of money.

If they ever pulled the banking system in order the loans might actually be reasonable. The interest these idiots sign up for is what makes them default later, when they finally grow a brain and do the math.

Prayut is giving money away to farmers when he should be tackling the legitimacy of their existing commitments, and a tangible management plan, as you suggested.

Edited February 16, 201610 yr by coulson