Koraput: Consumer forum pulls up bank for not closing education loan account

KORAPUT: The district consumer disputes and redressal forum has pulled up the Jeypore branch of a bank for failing to close an education loan account of a customer.
The forum, in its order pronounced on Friday, asked the bank authorities to close the loan account without charging any interest for the moratorium period and to pay Rs 5,000 as litigation cost to the complainant within 30 days of communication of the order.It also asked the bank to issue no dues certificate after payment of the principal amount.
The complainant, Gopal Chandra Swain, a resident of Kolab Nagar, had availed the education loan of Rs 3 lakh for his son on September 15, 2014 andthe last EMI was on June 29, 2017. The loan was to be repaid in 60 instalments. While the moratorium period was from August 30, 2014 to May 30, 2019, the first date of repayment was fixed on September 30, 2019.
However, the complainant had started paying the instalments from March 2019 and till June 2019, he had paid Rs 24,000 in instalments against the loan, said Sunil Kumar Mohanty, the complainant’s lawyer.
In between, the complainant had approached the bank in May 2019 for one-time settlement by depositing the principal amount of Rs 3 lakh. But the bank asked the complainant to deposit interest of Rs 1,15,083 for the moratorium period along with the principal amount, he added.
According to Mohanty, as per the Central Sector Interest Subsidy scheme-2009 of the Union government, the interest on education loan for the course period plus one year will be borne by the Centre in case of economically backward students whose parental income is within Rs 4.50 lakh per annum. The complainant approached the bank several times to settle the education loan account by deducting the interest amount but in vain, he added.
After examining the documents, the forum consisting of its president Nibedita Rath and member Jyoti Ranjan Pujari ordered that the opposite parity cannot claim interest after May 13, 2019 as the complainant was ready to pay all the dues at one time that too before the subsidy period was over.