Question : Vidyalakshmi Portal for Education Loan

(a) whether the students are unable to avail speedy education loan with single window system from banks and if so, the details thereof;

(b) the number of education loan applications submitted through Vidyalakshmi Portal in the year 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 and the total number of applications sanctioned and rejected as on date alongwith the details of average time taken by the Banks to decide on the applications;

(c) whether the several applications are pending with banks for more than 6 months; and

(d) if so, the action taken by the banks to rectify the situation?

(MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE)


(a) Vidya Lakshmi Portal was launched by the Government on August 15, 2015 to ensure that students can avail loans easily through single window system of banks for education loans. Banks follow Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) guidelines in this regard which stipulates that education loan applications have to be disposed off, in the normal course, within a period of 15 to 30 days.

(b) As per National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL), Year-wise number of applications made through Vidya Lakshmi Portal are as under:

Year Number of applications
2015-16 992
2016-17 11854
2017-18 63242
From 01.04.2018 to 29.07.2018 68302

As on 29.07.2018, details of status of applications, since launch of the Portal, is as under:

Total Applications Received 144390
Applications Sanctioned 42733
Applications Rejected/Closed 26392
Source: NSDL

As reported by Public Sector Banks (PSBs), the average time taken to process loan applications ranges from 15 to 30 days on receipt of completed application form.

(c) & (d) As reported by NSDL, 22119 applications are pending as on 29.07.2018 for more than 6 months. Major reasons for pendency of application include application beingnon-compliant under IBA Education loan scheme and/or students not submitting desired information, lack of proper response from students to the queries raised by banks. Depending on the reason for pendency of applications, banks take necessary action for its effective disposal. The students are contacted by the banks for early submission of required documents.
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