VIJAYAWADA: Though Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), the chief custodian of the world’s richest temple of Lord Venkateswara atop Tirumala, is facing financial problems like any other organisation during the lockdown, it is confident of paying salaries to its employees on time.
“It is not just TTD, but organisations, small and large, in the country and across the world are facing financial crunch due to inactivity. However, we have paid salaries to our employees for the months of March and April on time and are quite confident of paying salaries for the month of May (payable in June) without touching the corpus, gold, or fixed deposits.
Provisions are being made in that direction,” TTD chairman YV Subba Reddy told TNIE. Tirumala temple, like other temples, was closed for more than 50 days due to the lockdown and it is said to have lost an estimated `400 crore revenue during this period.
The TTD, which estimated a budget of `3,309.89 crore this fiscal, earmarked `1,385 crore for payments of salaries to its workforce of 7,400 regular employees and nearly 14,000 contract and outsourced employees. According to a TTD higher official, TTD has the ability to deal with its monthly expenditure, including monthly wages of around `75 crore per month on an average. He maintained that they never treat the funds from devotees as revenue, but as Kanukas offered to the deity. Hundi collections are not available as there are no devotees visiting the temple, another official said.