KUALA LUMPUR (July 18): National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) chairman Wan Saiful Wan Jan has denied the allegation by a former Barisan Nasional minister that the Pakatan Harapan manifesto on the question of repaying the loan from the fund was made without thorough planning.

He said the allegation by Rembau Member of Parliament Khairy Jamaluddin on the matter was not true, on the other hand, the manifesto was made without accurate information and data provided by the previous BN government.

"I feel Khairy should realise that when they were in the government, they did not provide actual government financial information to us and we had to write the manifesto based on the little information available.

“We were only aware of the actual situation when we came into the government, such as the position of the national debt. Now he (Khairy) claims that we wrote the manifesto without thinking. (It’s) not without thinking but actually without complete data because they did not give them to us,” he said when met at the Parliament lobby today.

He was asked to comment on the statement by Khairy today which was reported to have said that PH made promises in the 14th General Election manifesto including on the PTPTN loan, without thinking deeply to the extent that it now appeared that it could not be fulfilled.

Wan Saiful, who is also the Deputy Director of the PPBM Strategic and Policy Bureau, said following the current national financial position, the government had to rethink how to implement those promises contained in the manifesto, especially the 10 promises within the first 100 days which included the repayment of the PTPTN loan.

Clarifying further on the promise, Wan Saiful said PTPTN had offered borrowers earning RM4,000 and below who wished to postpone their repayment to apply to the PTPTN by providing information on their income.

He said the income information could be submitted to the PTPTN via the corporation’s website by July 25 at the latest.