The coalition government has announced that all TELS repayments are now put on hold.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Professor Biman Prasad says they are finalising the legal amendments required to forgive over $610 million in TELS debt.
He says this will lift off this huge burden from thousands of families and graduates who can now use the money otherwise used for TELS repayment to support themselves and the livelihoods of their families.
Professor Prasad also clarifies that apart from this, they are considering other measures that will be announced in the upcoming budget.
The Deputy Prime Minister says one of the first deliverables of the coalition government, and that so within their first month in Government, was to assist ordinary Fijians who are still recovering from the pandemic induced socio-economic challenges.
He says they started with a $200 per child "Back to School Support" payment which assisted parents of over 215,000 students with a total payout of over $43 million.
Professor Prasad says this timely support helped families ensure that their children were fully equipped with all the necessities to get back to school.
He says they got very good feedback from parents, retailers and the overall business community that this timely assistance was used wisely to buy school uniforms, bags, books, stationeries, shoes and many other school essentials.
He says they also allocated additional $7.5 million to continue the 10 percent reduction in bus fares for additonal 6 months starting from February to July.
Professor Prasad says this will assist thousands who use buses to commute to work or for other purposes.
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