Puri, Mar 11 (FN Agency) The fixed deposit of Sri Jagannath temple which now stands at Rs 650 crore would be increased to Rs1000 crore by 2023, temple Chief Administrator Dr Krishan Kumar said. Mr Kumar said the revenue earnings of the temple have gone down a lot during the lockdown. He said efforts are on to increase earnings from mines owned by the temple to the tune of Rs10 crore and to encourage devotees to donate more funds.
Donation boxes would be placed at airports to facilitate devotees to donate to the temple, the chief administrator said. Meanwhile, Sri Jagannath temple financial subcommittee on Wednesday passed a Rs 202 crore annual budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year. On the expenses side, Rs 11 crore has been allocated for annual Rath Yatra, Rs 5 crore for sevayat Kalyan programmes, Rs 50 lakh for medical and treatment of servitors and Rs 3.50 crore has been earmarked for sevak awas yojana.
The Revenue expenditure is pegged at Rs 88.84 crore while capital expenditure is Rs 112.76 crore. Five crore has been allocated for the establishment of a Gurukul school and four crore for the construction of another Bhakta Nibas. The Revenue receipt is estimated at Rs.90.97 crore the total of 12 components including interest from corpus fund Rs 18.70 crore and the capital receipt is estimated at Rs 90.26 crore. There is a Rs 67.10 crore deposit in the corpus fund. The fiscal deficit is estimated at Rs 20.57 crore. The finance subcommittee proposal would be placed in the temple managing committee and after approval, the final budget would be sent to the state government.