New Delhi: A parliamentary committee examining the demand of grants to the higher education department has recommended expediting the revision of a scheme meant for the grant of interest-free loans to higher education institutions for infrastructure and other projects.
The Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) was supposed to fund projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore by 2022. However, as on 31 December 2022, projects worth Rs 46,700.03 crore had been approved by HEFA, according to the report on ‘Demand for Grants 2023-24’, by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports, released Tuesday.
The committee said it agrees with the contention of the department of higher education that the outbreak of Covid-19 has dampened demand, as construction activities were shut down and educational institutions were not in a position to undertake new projects.
“The committee recommends that the department should undertake sincere efforts to sanction more loans to mobilise the resources at the fullest, ensure speedy disbursal of sanctioned loans and to achieve targets in a time-bound manner during 2023-24,” it says.
“The committee further recommends to expedite the revision of the HEFA scheme and notify it at the earliest to widen the scope for financing under HEFA,” it adds.
According to the report, for the projects worth Rs 46,700.03 crore approved, a loan amount of Rs 35,253.18 crore has been sanctioned and Rs 16,013.79 crore disbursed.
By December 2022, loans had been sanctioned to 101 institutions, including Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and central universities.
On fund allocation
The HEFA did not receive any funding in the financial year 2023-24 and Rs 1 lakh in 2022-23.
On the fund allocation for the agency, the report says, “The purpose behind allocation of Rs 1 lakh in 2022-23 under HEFA and for NIL allocation in 2023-24 is that the Government of India has an equity contribution in HEFA, which is a section 8 NBFC (non-banking financial company).
“The present equity contribution of the government in HEFA is sufficient to meet the current infrastructure requirement of the institutions. Therefore, a token allocation in 2022-23 and no allocation under 2023-24 has been made.”
This means that the government saw no need to allocate budget to the agency.
As part of its mandate, HEFA is supposed to raise money from the market through CSR and other initiatives. The report, however, does not mention whether it has been able to do so.
Also Read: DU a step closer to seeking Rs 938-cr loan from govt, profs say this would ‘burden’ students