INDIA, February 20, 2019 (The News Minute): The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), the body which oversees the Venkateswara temple atop Tirumala, unveiled a budget of approx. US$438 million for 2019-20 and said that it was expected cash offerings alone to account for $173 million of the total amount. Speaking to reporters, TTD chairman Putta Sudhakar Yadav said that according to their estimates, the sale of tickets could fetch around $41 million, while the famed laddu prasadam may help the religious body take in around $38 million. According to the TTD’s website, every day on an average, about 300,000 laddus are sold in Tirumala. The sale of hair, which devotees offer to the presiding deity, is another avenue for income for the TTD. The TTD chairman also said that around $88 million would be spent on paying the salaries of the staff who worked in the premises of the temple.
The TTD had approved an annual budget of $401.7 million for 2017-18 and have stated that the temple’s earnings during 2018-19 are expected to be around $406.7 million, of which the offerings in temple Hundi are likely to be $162.5 million. During the financial year 2016-17, the TTD said that 26.8 million devotees visited the shrine. As the TTD deals with such a large amount of public money, devotees have contended that there should be more transparency in how the funds are spent by the body.