Uttar Pradesh Registers 30 Percent Jump In Fresh Education Loans

For many aspirant students who want to finish their higher education at the universities of their dreams but lack the funds to do so, education loans have all but become necessary.

Uttar Pradesh’s education sector has seen a 30 percent rise in fresh education loans amounting to Rs 1,028 crore, during the first nine months of FY 24 (April to December). In the same period of FY 23, 28,000 fresh education loans worth Rs 787 crore were disbursed, as per the data released by the State-level Bankers Committee (SLBC).

As per the SLBC information, people with existing education accounts are repaying their debts. The amount of outstanding education loans decreased by 4.5 percent to Rs 5,642 crore in December 2023 from Rs 5,908 crore in the same month the previous year.

Almost 80 percent of new advances in the state’s education loan market are secured by public-sector banks, outperforming their private counterparts in this regard. Reportedly, across the nation the education loans from the PSBs grew from Rs. 9190.45 crore to an all-time high of Rs. 17,688 crore in 2022-23 (till December 2022). This represents almost a two-fold increase.

Moreover in Uttar Pradesh, the Agricultural and micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) advances continue to outpace the services sector loans, which include housing and education, in terms of reaching targets.

Notably, states in the south of India, i.e. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, received a greater number of educational loan applications per lakh population compared to the rest of India from the public and private banks in the last financial year.

Repayment of Loans

While repaying the interest amount, there are two ways one is to repay the amount regularly during the study period, the other way is through a moratorium period where repayment is done after the completion of studies and getting a job.

To provide relief to students from economically weaker sections, the government offers a subsidy scheme Central Sector Interest Subsidy Scheme (CSIS). Under the given scheme the government of India subsidises the interest accrues during the moratorium period for students from economically weaker sections.