Tirumala's income soars to record levels

While the country is yet to rebound from the recession, reflected by the recently presented Union Budget, the “Lord of Seven Hills” seems immune to the gloomy economic trend.

With increasing in offerings to the country’s richest temple, its coffers is getting heavier.

Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), an autonomous body managing the affairs of the hill shrine, has approved an annual budget of Rs 2,248 crore for 2013-14, billed as the highest for any temple trust in the country.

The budget, approved by the TTD board that met under its Chairman K Bapiraju, shows a jump of Rs 238 crore compared to last year.

Offerings by the devotees in the temple “Hundi” (offering box) topped the list of receipts table at Rs 859 crore while the interest on investments deposited in national banks by the TTD was estimated to account for Rs 555 crore.

The temple authorities estimates incomes over Rs 231 crore through sale of darshan tickets and other paid rituals during the year while auction of human hair, offered by the pilgrims, is expected to fetch about Rs 200 crore for the new fiscal, Bapiraju said.

As for expenses, the TTD is likely to incur corpus and other investments of Rs 638 crore, wages and salaries for the financial year of Rs 335 crore, engineering work for Rs 190 crore, allocations for Hindu Dharma Prachara Parishad of Rs 95 crore, earmark of Rs 81 crore for educational institutions, and Rs 46 crore for TTD-run hospitals.

TTD Executive Officer LV Subramanyam said the focus would be on providing better amenities to pilgrims, improving the security of the temple and pilgrims, welfare of employees, “dharmic” activities and infrastructure.

“More importantly, all these will be provided without hiking the prices of tickets or services,” the official said.

The TTD has already started building a replica of Lord Venkateswara temple in Kurukshetra in Haryana.

There are also plans to build similar temples in Kanyakumari and Mumbai.