Tirupati loses ₹400cr during lockdown

Tirupati loses ₹400cr during lockdown

Sandeep.Raghavan@timesgroup.com

Tirupati:  11.05.2020

The world’s richest temple trust Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which runs the Sri Venkateswara temple at Tirumala, on Sunday said that it has lost ₹400 crore of revenue during the lockdown and does not have enough cash to pay salaries and meet daily expenses.

TTD officials said the trust has already spent nearly ₹300 crore towards salaries, pensions, and other fixed expenses during the lockdown and is deliberating on ways to resolve the crisis “without having to touch” its eight tonnes of gold reserve and ₹14,000 crore fixed deposits.

‘‘TTD is obligated to pay salaries and pensions… It has a fixed annual expenditure of nearly ₹2,500 crore,” said TTD chairman YV Subba Reddy.

TTD’s payout for human resources for 2020-21 is pegged at ₹1,385.09 crore. It has to shell out approximately ₹120 crore every month on paying salaries and pensions. In addition, TTD has to extend financial support in the form of grants to the tune of nearly ₹400 crore to SVIMS, BIRRD, and other healthcare institutions run by it, besides funding the welfare hostels, educational institutions and universities under its fold.

The temple attracts 80,000 to 100,000 devotees daily; the rush increases considerably during festival seasons, officials said.