 "Balalji, Tirupati")
Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) Trust Board is planning to utilise the ongoing cashless transactions drive to expand e-Hundi (online money offerings) it had introduced a couple of years ago.
Hundi offerings to Lord Balaji, the wealthiest among all Indian gods, is the largest income source for the TTD.
Every year it gets more than Rs 1,000 crore just in the form of offerings, mostly in cash, being dropped in the Hundi by the devotees at the Temple of Balaji, also called Lord Venkateshwara, on the Tirumala hills in Andhra Pradesh.
"On an average we receive Rs 1 crore a month from e-Hundi facility though which the devotees can transfer money to the Temple trust. However, this is just a fraction of what we recieve in the Temple Hundi. Now, we want to expand the e-Hundi receipts by encouraging the devotees to go cashless on this front too," TTD executive officer D Sambasiva Rao told Business Standard on Friday.
While the likely impact of demonetisation of the existing Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denomination currency notes on the Hundi offerings beyond December 31, 2016 was still not clear, Rao, who is a senior IAS officer, however, insists that the move was aimed at achieving a greater transparency across the services of TTD rather than driven by any immediate consideration.
In fact, TTD board has no reason to worry going by the volume of Hundi offerings registered after November 8, the day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that the existing high denomination currency notes will not longer be a legal tender. The daily Hundi income has risen to more than Rs 4 crore on some days after November 8 as compared to Rs 2.5 crore to Rs 3 crore, which is a normal collection in the month of November, according to observers.
"Let us not speculate on how things would pan out," Rao said when asked about a possible effect of demonetisation on the Hundi collections going forward.
For the year 2016-17 the TTD board had estimated a total Temple income of Rs 2,678 crore, which includes Rs 1,010 crore through offerings from devotees (including Hundi offerings), Rs 778.93 crore in the form of interest on deposits, Rs 300 crore from sale of special entry darshan tickets among other things.
Currently about 70% of the total Seva darshan tickets are sold on-line while the same is about 25-30% when it comes to booking of accommodation or purchase of the Laddus etc. "Now we have installed PoS machines at every point of transaction on Tirumala to make all transactions 100% cashless. Simultaneously we hope to expand the e-Hundi receipts by introducing certain measures," TTD executive officer Sambasiva Rao said.
Besides the cash, devotees also offer gold ornaments and other jewelry in the Hundi and this practice was expected to continue in the future. The offerings in gold and jewelry ranges between 800 kg to 1 tonne a year.
Meanwhile, the Hundi of Lord Balaji continues to receive the old Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes as the Temple management has no say in what should or what should not be offered by a devotee, according to the sources. The Temple board can utilise the window available till March, 31, 2017 to exchange all these old notes with RBI.
The TTD board also runs 9 trusts which have been into various kinds of charitable activities. They receive donations directly in the form of cheques and DDs against which the donors will receive Income Tax exemption certificates within 48 hours besides the donor passes that give them certain privileges in utilising the services offered at the the Temple, according to Rao.
