The Fiji Revenue and Customs Service has collected a total of $3.8m in Tertiary Education Loan Scheme repayments in the last financial year.
This was highlighted by the Fiji Revenue Customs Service CEO Visvanath Das who has also clarified that since 2014 to 2018 a total of $302m has been disbursed for students studying under the TELS Programme.
Das says that between 2017 and 2018 a total of 30,341 students are studying under the TELS programme.
Meanwhile, the Tertiary Education Loans Board has confirmed that they have received 6,080 applications for TELS so far for this year.
When questioned by Fijivillage on whether students are restricted to travel abroad if they have not fully paid off their TELS loans, Das clearly stated that students who have completed their studies under the TELS Scheme or TELS programme will not be restricted from travelling abroad for business or holiday.
He went on to explain that all students' names are put on immigration alert adding that if they need to travel for business, or holiday, they can facilitate this as long as guarantors or sureties are in place that the student will return to continue their education, or work and repay the loan in due course.
Das has revealed that they have had cases, where students have educated themselves under the TELS program and upon graduation they find a job overseas and some have paid off their loans completely and left the country.
Das says they have also had some students who are honest and grateful for the education opportunity provided by TELS are working overseas and repaying their TELS loans every month.
He says that they have had no reports of students who have absconded from paying their TELS loans.
In the 2018/2019 National Budget $206M has been allocated to TELS expanding the reach of the program to over 25,000 students.
