Chrysler payment 7 years early

Lee Iacocca, chairman of the Chrysler Corporation, announced the company will pay off all of its remaining $800 million in loans by September - seven years early.

''We are about to reestablish Chrysler as a successful private corporation that pays its own way,'' he told the National Press Club.

Chrysler, on the brink of bankruptcy, received $1.2 billion in federally guaranteed loans three years ago, the largest such rescue of an ailing corporation. It repaid $400 million June 15.

Mr. Iacocca said paying off all the guaranteed loans in three years instead of 10 will save Chrysler $56 million a year in net interest. He added that the guarantee program has been at no net cost to federal taxpayers. Chrysler so far has paid the government $34 million in fees. The government has estimated it cost $1 million a year to administer the loans.