Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams proposes Rs 3,000-crore budget for 2018-19

TIRUPATI: The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) on Friday sent its annual budget proposals for the financial year 2018-19 to the State government for approval. For the first time in its history, the TTD sent the annual budget proposals to the government on its own against normal the practice of sending it through the Trust Board or Specified Authority.

“It is not any violation, it is according to the rules  and regulations of the State government or TTD Act,” EO Anil Kumar Singhal clarified and added that according to the provisions and practice by other temples, the TTD also sent the budget proposals soon after completion of the fiscal, seeking approval.

“Another significance of the TTD budget is that every year the total outlay increases. For instance, Rs 73 crore was the annual budget outlay in 1993-94, and in 2017-18 financial year, it was Rs 2,858.48 crore, but it was revised to Rs 2,934.94 crore. But, the proposed budget for the current fiscal is less than the outlay of last financial year. The expectations are that the TTD budget may cross Rs 3,000 crore,” he said.

The EO said that the interest on TTD investments may decline by at least Rs 100 crore in 2018-19 from Rs 840.94 crore to Rs 747.56 crore. The total investments of TTD are over Rs 10,000 crore.  “On April 1, Rs 4,000 crore deposits in Vijaya Bank matured. On maturity of deposits, the TTD split the sum of Rs 4,000 crore and deposited Rs 3,000 crore in Andhra Bank and Rs 1,000 crore in IndusInd Bank,” he said.

Singhal added that hence interest on investments would come down by at least Rs 100 crore during the current fiscal.“So we have not increased the total budget outlay,” said the TTD accounts authorities. Whatever, the Lord’s annual budget is set to cross Rs  3,000 crore mark this fiscal.