The temple of Lord Venkateswara registered a slight dip in the ‘hundi’ income during the year 2017. The overall income received is pegged at ₹995.89 crore when compared to ₹1,046.28 crore in 2016.
Authorities attributed the decrease of ₹50.39 crore to two major factors. Firstly, the demonetisation move that threw the Indian economy into a state of turmoil and secondly the Goods of Services Tax (GST).
The initial months of the 2017 (post demonetisation) also saw the country reeling under acute shortage in the availability of the new currency notes and this particular factor they opined had to some extent influenced the ‘hundi’ proceeds.
Statistics also revealed a marginal decline in the proceeds earned through the allotment of cottages and guest houses.
Occupancy ratio
The total income earned during 2017 is put at ₹83.76 crore against ₹85.91 core in 2016. But interestingly the occupancy ratio registered an increase by 2% when compared to the 101% the previous year.
Meanwhile, the TTD scripted a new chapter in the temple history by providing darshan to highest-ever over 2.73 crore pilgrims during the year as against 2.66 crore in the previous year. The production of laddus also shot up to 10.67 crore (pieces) when compared to 10.36 crore in 2016.
The significant factor is that the year registered a staggering increase of 23.9% in the supply of free food to the pilgrims.
About 6.27 crore devotees availed the facility against 5.07 crore the previous year.
Likewise about 3.96 crore availed free beverages supplied by the TTD registering an increase by 45.3 % against 2.73 crore during the previous year.
Themanagement, which made the ₹300 special entry tickets available online, also recorded an all time high income of ₹210 crore during 2017 through their sales.
