MP asks govt to revise HESLB loan deductions

Dodoma. Mbozi Member of Parliament Pascal Haonga (Chadema) has asked the government to rethink its decision to deduct 15 per cent from the salaries of Higher Education Students Loans Board (Heslb) beneficiaries.

He called on the government to revise salary scales in order to enable beneficiaries to cope with the cost of living if it insisted on collecting the current percentage.

However, the minister for Education, Science and Technology, Prof Joyce Ndalichako, said the government had no plan of reversing the decision that was formalised by amendments to the Heslb Act.

In his main question, Mr Haonga asked if the government did not consider itself to have breached the contract it signed with borrowers to refund the money through deductions of eight per cent from their salaries instead of 15 per cent?

He said the 15 per cent deductions have been largely affecting workers by lowering their efficiency and called upon the government to immediately suspend its implementation.

Prof Ndalichako said the 15 per cent deduction from beneficiaries’ gross salaries was a legal obligation that intended to ensure all monies released by the government was collected on time in order to benefit other needy Tanzanians.