GSIS to issue less loan interest, flexible terms

By Carlito Dar

BAGUIO CITY -- Government Service Insurance System president and general manager Robert Vergara said the government agency will now impose lesser interest and flexible terms for loans of members.

Vergara said here from eight percent interest rate per annum, loan interest is now down to 6 percent, and the 1 percent service fee is waived.

Grace period for payment of the first amortization is extended to three months.

More flexible emergency loan assistance to members during time of disaster or calamities as what GSIS did in typhoon Yolanda-affected areas, would be issued, he said.

Vergara said GSIS is working for more transparent membership premiums and loan account that will address issues of premium payments that are not posted and discrepancy in loan application and balances.

“We are working to institutionalize regular issuance of statement of loan accounts to members  to improve transparency on loan payments and balances. As one of our major undertakings, we are pushing for transparency on members’ loan accounts and we will do this systematically,” he said.

Through such undertaking, the GSIS and members can  reconcile records.

According to Vergara, they will start with the loan accounts of members who are 59 years old and above as they are  nearing  retirement.  Around 127,000 GSIS members   are set to benefit from   this.  

It will to soon include those  49  up to 58 years old  members to cover  around 347,000 members.

We will do this little by little until we eventually cover all the 1.4 million GSIS members. We already started the program in seven of our branches and now we are bringing it to 21 more branches and soon this will be applied in all the 58 GSIS branches, nationwide,” Vergara  said.

As for posting of membership premiums, Vergara said through various policy and program reforms since 2010, GSIS posting efficiency was at 95.28 percent last year.