Tirupati temple reports large dip in revenue in 2017
HYDERABAD: The world’s richest Hindu shrine has reported a fall in revenue collected from devotees even though visitors are going up. The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which manages Lord Venkateswara temple in Andhra Pradesh, recorded a revenue fall of ₹50 crore in 2017 as compared to previous year.
The legend is that the cash offered by the devotees is being used by Lord Venkateswara to pay interest to the loan he had taken from Kubera, the god of wealth. The money is collected in a hundi, a cylinder shaped cash chest placed on the northern side of the inner temple complex.
As per TTD records, the number of visitors in 2017 increased by about 7,00,000 from 26 million recorded in 2016. But it did not get reflected in the cash flow. The cash collection dipped by ₹50.39 crore to ₹995.89 crore in 2017.
TTD executive director Anil Kumar Singhal attributed the revenue fall to demonetisation, pointing out that the temple received ₹26 crore worth banned notes in early part of 2017.
The Centre demonetised ₹500 and ₹1,000 currency notes on November 8 2016 and gave time till March 31, 2017 to deposit the scrapped bills in banks. The TTD received most of the banned notes after the expiry of the deadline.
“For a few months after demonetisation, pilgrims continued to drop the banned currency in the hundi, which later turned out to be useless,” Singhal said.
Singhal said there was, however, an increase in electronic transfer of funds called e-hundi. “These (e-hundi) earnings went from ₹10.53 crore in 2016 to ₹15.36 crore in 2017,” he said.