Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Tuesday that the public sector banks are now required to clear education loans within 15-30 days and they should also institute an online system to clear such loans.

“As per the norms prescribed under the Model Education Loan Scheme, the banks are required to dispose of loan applications within a period of 15 days to 1 month,” Chidambaram told Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

Online application

In order to provide better services to students across the country, the Finance Minister said, the government has advised banks to institute an online system of loan applications.

This will enable students to download the loan application form, apply online and learn the status of their loan application, Chidambar- am  said.

Referring to information provided by the Reserve Bank of India, the Finance Minister said that educational loans worth Rs 18,992 crore were outstanding as on November 23 this fiscal, sanctioned by public sector banks.

No state-wise info

Declining to give state-wise information about the amount of educational loans sanctioned, the Finance Minister said that data on amount of educational loans sanctioned by the public sector banks and the number of applications received were not recorded bank-wise across each state.