Hyderabad, Jan. 31: The Venkateswara temple at Tirumala has projected an earning of Rs 1,010 crore through hundi collection - contribution from common devotees alone, not big donors who usually hand the payment to the administration directly - for 2016-17, up from Rs 905 crore raised this financial year.
The temple has estimated an income of Rs 150 crore from the sale of human hair contributed by devotees, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam chairman Ch. Krishnamurthy said. It expects to earn Rs 778 crore as interest on deposits, up from Rs 768 crore.
The TTD board yesterday approved its annual budget for 2016-17 with an estimated revenue of Rs 2,678.07 crore, an increase of over Rs 50 crore over the previous year in spite of a fall in the number of devotees from Telangana.
Since the creation of a separate state, buses from Telangana travelling to Tirupati need two permits to enter Andhra Pradesh. Besides, recommendations from Telangana ministers for priority darshan or accommodation do not carry the same weight as those of Andhra ministers. As a result, the number of visitors from that region has come down.
The temple administration, controlled by state-appointed gazetted officers and IAS officials, expects to earn Rs 209 crore from sale of the special entry darshan tickets, priced at Rs 300 each and Rs 175 crore from sale of prasadam.
On the payments side, the biggest outgo is of Rs 757.06 crore towards investments - up from Rs 629.83 crore the previous year. The next big outflow is Rs 500 crore towards salaries and wages, followed by Rs 320 crore towards the procurement of material.
The TTD executive officer, D. Sambashiv Rao, said the proposal of the special committee to raise the charges for accommodation, VIP darshan, which is now priced at Rs 500, and for laddu prasadam, now costing Rs 25, was shot down by the board.
TTD is managed by over 14,000 permanent employees and another 10,000 contract workers. Nearly 60,000 devotees visit the temple daily, three lakh laddus are sold every day, about 45,000 people are provided free meals and around 4,000 are allotted subsidised rooms. "We have now deployed e-governance in all streams of temple administration to make it corruption-free," Rao said.
