As a relief to thousands of students who had availed educational loans from Banks from 2009 onwards the Indian Banks Association has decided to give one more extension for submitting the claims of interest subsidy on loans. The decisions were taken in the detailed discussions took place between Minister of Human Resources Development, IBA and the Nodal bank at the meeting convened by Ministry on 10th October, 2012 at New Delhi on the submission of the claims by banks under the Interest Subsidy Scheme. Based on the deliberations, the following decisions were taken. Moreover, the period of repayment of the loan has been extended to 10 years for loans upto the amount of Rs. 7.5 lakhs and for loans of 7.5 lakhs and above the period stands extended to 15 years.
All pending subsidy claims pertaining to the period 1st April 2009 to 31st March, 2010 and 1st April 2010 to 31st March 2011 may be submitted by banks to the Nodal Bank during the period 1st November, 2012 to 30th November, 2012.
All pending claims pertaining to the period 1st April 2011 to 31st March, 2012 may be submitted by the banks to the Nodal Bank during the period 1st December, 2012 to 31st December, 2012.
Member Banks have to ensure that the Interest Subsidy claims are submitted within the above mentioned time slots only. The Ministry of HRD and Nodal Bank will not entertain claims if not submitted within the stipulated period.
It was observed that 3 States viz; Bihar, Manipur and Sikkim have not yet designated the competent authorities to issue income certificate under the scheme. It was decided that let MHRD take up the matter with the respective States and they notify the competent authorities immediately so that the students submit their claims and banks could submit such claims to the Ministry through the Nodal Bank.
Some of the IBA Member Banks have stated that in Rajasthan, Tahsildars, who are the competent authorities for issuing income certificate are returning the applications of the student borrowers as the Govt, of Rajasthan has issued revised notification stating that the revenue officers of the State will not issue the income certificate and that BPL card will be valid as income certificate. MHRD has been requested to take up the matter with the State of Rajasthan and advise the IBA in the matter to enable them to take appropriate action.
IBA has requested member banks to submit their pending claims for the year 2009-10 and 2010-11 and also the claims pertaining to 2011-12 within the time period indicated above. Members have to strictly observe the time zone.



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