Tirupati Balaji Temple: 'Richest' Temple Suffers Huge Financial Loss, Struggles to Pay Salaries to Employees!

The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), the world’s richest temple which runs the Sri Venketeshwara temple in Tirupati, has lost its revenue of Rs 400 crore due to the nation-wide lockdown. The temple is now finding hard to meet ends with paying salaries and pension to its employees.

“TTD is obligated to pay salaries and pensions and has a set of other fixed expenses which it has to incur irrespective of its revenues hitting rock bottom. TTD has a fixed annul expenditure of nearly Rs 2,500 crore under different heads,” said the Chairman YV Subba Reddy.

The officials of TTD have said that the temple has already spent nearly Rs 300 crore for salaries, pensions and other fixed expenses since the commencement of the lockdown. Hence they are now trying to deal with the crisis without having to resort to their Rs 14,000 crore fixed deposit or the 8 tons of gold that is in reserve.

The temple regularly brings around 80,000 to 1,00,000 devotees every day. Since the lockdown, the hundi collections alone is reported to have incurred a loss of 150-175 crore. Other sources for revenue, including entry tickets, dharshan tickets, prasadam, donations, accommodation, have dried up.

The temple has been closed for the past 50 days and is unsure of when it will reopen for the public to visit.