A year on, ‘junked’ notes continue to flow into temple hundis in Tamil Nadu 

Ram Sundaram | TNN | Updated: Nov 22, 2017, 05:53 IST



CHENNAI: With a prayer on their lips, temple administrators are continuing to count and store demonetised currencies that are still flowing into hundials in temples across the state. It was Rs 10 crore at the last count, say temples under the state Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department.

Even a year after demonetisation, temples in Tamil Nadu are receiving Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 rupee currency notes as donations in their 'hundials' or donation boxes. Temples administered by the state HR&CE department say they received at least Rs 10 crore rupees as donations after the December 31 deadline set by the Centre to exchange old currency notes for new ones.

With the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) turning down a proposal from HR&CE to accept demonetised currency notes after the said deadline, old notes are now being stored as 'junk' in temples.

HR&CE authorities are uncertain about this claim as no centralised attempts were taken post-demonetisation to find out how much is being stored in temples and who deposited them.

According to government records, there are 38,600 Hindu religious institutions under the control of the HR&CE. Of this, nearly 90% with an annual income of less than Rs 10,000 are classified as 'non-listed' institutions and the remaining 4,500 are classified as 'listed' institutions.

Apart from grants from both the governments, donations through donation boxes act as a major source of income for these temples located across the state. Currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations were declared invalid on November 8, 2016. Since cash deposited in temple donation boxes did not come under tax scanner, bundles of demonetised currency notes found its way to these boxes."Income of these temples witnessed a sharp rise during this period and concerned authorities stood in queues outside banks to exchange these notes till the very last minute on December 31," said a HR&CE official.

However, old notes kept flowing into donation boxes even after this deadline and even a year later, particularly in listed temples (under Section 46 III with an annual income of more than Rs 10 lakh).

"Temples like Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai and Patteswarar temple in Perur, Coimbatore received more than 50,000 as old notes. A few amman temples such as Samayapuram Mariamman temple in Trichy also received more or less the same amount in old currency notes," said an HR&CE joint commissioner.

Sources said that a few temples had approached HR&CE seeking directions on what to do with these notes. Not in a position to decide anything on this matter, HR&CE authorities wrote to RBI requesting them to accept old notes from temples administered directly by them, sources added. However, RBI refused to relax norms.

Following this, temples are storing these notes in their respective safety lockers just like any other property.