TIRUPATI: Coronavirus-induced financial crisis has had a huge impact on Hundi revenues of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala. In all, the richest Hindu temple in the country lost more than Rs 800 crore in Hundi collections during the past one year.
In 2020 February, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Trust Board approved its 2020-21 annual budget of Rs 3,310 crore. It then pegged Hundi returns at Rs 1,351 crore. However, these dropped drastically in the 12-month period of last fiscal, as the temple had been closed for 84 days with no devotees allowed.
The hill shrine had been closed to devotees on March 20, 2020 and reopened on June 11 last year adhering to Covid-19 guidelines issued by union ministry of home affairs. However, only a limited number of devotees have been allowed throughout the year, thereby impacting Hundi collections and other revenues of TTD.
Usually, the temple witnesses nearly 60,000-90,000 footfalls a day and crosses one lakh on special days and weekends. On an average, the shrine receives between Rs 3 crore and Rs 4 crore of revenue a day through offerings made by devotees into the Hundi. The monthly corpus is anywhere between Rs 100 crore-Rs150 crore. But restrictions on number of devotees allowed per day due to Coronavirus had a huge impact on Hundi revenues.
As per official records, in April and May last year, Hundi collections had been at rock-bottom of Rs10.50 lakh and Rs 35.97 lakh respectively, when the temple remained completely closed for devotees. After it reopened for pilgrims on June 8, Hundi revenues went up to Rs 1.1 crore in that month, followed by Rs 16.69 crore in July, Rs. 18.43 crore in August, Rs. 32.04 crore in September, Rs. 47.52 crore in October, and Rs. 61.29 crore in November. Collections reached near normalcy in December last year with Rs 79.64 crore being received from devotees by way of Hundi.
The same went up to Rs 83.92 crore in January this year, Rs 90.45 crore in February and Rs 104.42 crore in March. The onset of Covid-19 second wave once again brought back restrictions on number of devotees allowed per day. Hundi revenues thus fell again to Rs 62.69 crore in April and further declined to Rs 11.95 crore in May. Collections in June were, however, Rs 36.01 crore.
