Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Tuesday the public sector banks are required to clear education loans within 15-30 days and they should also institute an on-line system to clear such loans.

"As per the norms prescribed under the Model Education Loan Scheme, the banks are required to dispose of loan applications within a period of 15 days to 1 month," Chidambaram told Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

In order to provide better services to students across the country, he said, the government has advised the banks to institute an on-line system of loan applications.

This will enable students to download the loan application form, apply online and learn the status of their loan application, he said adding the facility is now provided by all major public sector banks.

Referring to information provided by the Reserve Bank, Chidambaram said educational loans worth Rs 18,992 crore (Rs 189.92 billion) were outstanding as on November 23 this fiscal, sanctioned by the public sector banks.

Declining to give state-wise information about the amount of educational loans sanctioned, the finance minister said, data on amount of educational loans sanctioned by the PSBs and the number of applications received were not recorded bank-wise across each state.