e-auction of human hair offered by lakhs of devotees to the Lord Venkateswara at Tirupati, is expected to rake in a whopping Rs 179 crore for the fiscal 2011-12 to the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD).
The public sector MSTC Ltd. is managing the electronic trading platform for the TTD. The Devasthanam has projected revenues of Rs 145 crore for fiscal 2012-13 from sale of hair.
It is estimated that close to 500 tonnes of hair, offered by lakhs of devotees annually poses a gigantic task to dispose off. There is a good market and the hair is bought by locals, who also export it. Hundi collections (Rs 731 crore), sale of human hair (Rs 179 crore), interest on investments (FDRs) (Rs 405 crore), sale of prasadam (Rs 135 crore) constitute the bulk of the revenue for the Devasthanam. The TTD Trust Board Chairman, Mr Kanumuri Bapiraju, said for the first time in the history of the Devasthanam, the revenue budget for 2012-13 is expected to cross Rs 2,000 crore.
Pilgrims, no rate hike
For the millions of devotees the good new is that there will be no increase in rates at all-pilgrim facility areas such as darshan, seva tickets, prasadam, toll gate, reception etc. The Devasthanam has also allocated Rs 58.43 crore on pilgrim sanitation on the Tirumala hills.
Giving details, the Executive Officer, Mr L.V. Subramanyam, said the interest on investments for the current fiscal was Rs 405.23 crore and is expected to rise to Rs 475 crore (2012-13). The biggest revenues come from Kanuka (donations from devotees), which stood at Rs 731 crore and expected to grow to Rs 800 crore next fiscal.
The salary and wage bill of TTD is Rs 300 crore, while the expenditure on procuring ingredients that go into making the famous Tirupati laddus and vadas is Rs 180.98 crore.
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.