The coronavirus lockdown has impacted lives of many due to the sudden shutdown across the nation. The country is currently witnessing lockdown 3.0 where there some relaxations given but temples, malls, theatres continue to be shut.
Due to the lockdown impact, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), the world’s richest temple trust that runs the Sri Venkateswara temple at Tirumala, which has lost Rs 400 crore in revenue during the lockdown is now struggling to pay salaries to their staff members and also to meet their daily expenses.
Officials said the trust has already spent nearly Rs 300 crore towards salaries, pensions and other fixed expenses during the lockdown so far and was deliberating ways to resolve the crisis without having to touch the eight tons of gold reserve and Rs 14,000 crore fixed deposits.
‘‘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 annual expenditure of nearly Rs 2,500 crore under different heads,” said TTD chairman YV Subba Reddy.
Reddy said while the average monthly income at Tirumala stood around Rs 200-220 crore, there has been no revenue since the lockdown as the temple has been closed to devotees.
For the uninitiated, the temple has been closed in view of the lockdown for the past 50 days and it’s not clear when the temple will be reopened for public worship.
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