Recently, with the consent of the State Council, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Education, the People's Bank of China, and the State Administration of Financial Supervision jointly issued the "Notice on Effectively Implementing the Interest-Free and Deferred Principal Repayment of National Student Loans in 2024" (Finance and Education [2024] 2 (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"). The interpretation is as follows:
1. What is the background and significance of the Notice?
Answer: In order to implement the decisions and arrangements of the executive meeting of the State Council, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Education, the People's Bank of China, and the State Administration of Financial Supervision carefully studied and submitted to the State Council for approval and decided to continue to implement the national student loan interest-free and principal deferred repayment policy in 2024.
The introduction of this measure is expected to reduce interest by 2.44 billion yuan and benefit approximately 5.5 million college graduates. It will help alleviate the financial and employment pressure of loan students, help students maintain their personal credit records, and promote their smooth employment.
2. Who are the recipients of this exemption of interest and deferred repayment of principal?
Answer: This interest exemption and principal repayment deferment are targeted at loan students who graduated in 2024 and previous years and should repay principal or interest within 2024.
Graduates who have paid off their national student loans before the issuance of the "Notice" are not covered by this policy funding.
3. How is the scope of interest exemption determined this time? Is it necessary to apply?
Answer: What is exempted this time is the interest on national student loans that should be repaid in 2024. Students with loans do not need to apply, and the sponsoring bank will handle it directly.
First, for newly graduated students with loans in 2024, since the interest on national student loans during school is fully subsidized by the government, the interest payable by individuals in 2024 after graduation and entering the repayment period will be exempted.
Second, for students who graduated with loans in previous years, the national student loan interest payable by individuals in 2024 will be exempted, including the penalty interest incurred in 2024 for overdue loans in previous years.
4. If students who graduated with loans in previous years have repaid the interest in 2024 before the issuance of the "Notice", can they be exempted?
Answer: The interest in 2024 that has been repaid by loan students who graduated in previous years before the issuance of the "Notice" should be exempted and divided into two situations.
First, if the undertaking bank does not deduct the funds, the corresponding funds will no longer be deducted and the loan students can use them by themselves.
Second, if the undertaking bank has completed the deduction operation, the undertaking bank will return the deducted interest that should be exempted to the personal account.
5. How do you understand the "Notice" that "with reference to the national student loan interest discount policy, the exempted interest will be borne by the central finance and local finance respectively"?
Answer: According to current policies, all national student loan interest while students are studying is subsidized by the government, and the interest subsidy funds are borne by the central government and local government respectively. The interest exemption this time will be implemented in accordance with the interest discount policy.
The specific arrangement method is: the funds required for interest-free are based on provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, cities under separate state planning), and can be paid from the available stock funds of national student loan risk compensation funds that have been allocated by the central finance and local finance to the undertaking bank. The funds required by provinces with insufficient funds or no existing funds will be arranged by the central finance and local finance respectively in the 2024 budget.
6. The principal of the national student loan that should be repaid in 2024 can be applied for a one-year extension. How to do this?
Answer: First, students with loans who are in the principal repayment grace period do not need to repay the loan principal in 2024, so they do not need to apply for an extension of loan principal repayment.
Second, loan students who are in the loan principal repayment period can defer the repayment of the loan principal in 2024 for one year after applying independently and completing relevant procedures as required by the undertaking bank. The extended loan will not include penalty interest and compound interest. The maximum loan period policy constant. If I do not submit an application, the loan principal will be repaid by default as stipulated in the original contract.
Third, before the issuance of the "Notice", loan students who have partially repaid or fully repaid the principal cannot apply for deferred repayment.
Relevant application channels are opened by each sponsoring bank, so loan students are requested to pay attention in time.
(CCTV reporter Tian Qiyong)