Puri: The Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee Friday approved a budget proposal of Rs 102 crore for Srimandir for 2019-20 financial year.
“The budget proposal eyes revenue collection to the tune of Rs 102 crore for the shrine for the year 2019-20 while the total expenditure has been pegged at Rs 78 crore. So, this is a surplus budget,” said Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) chief PK Mahapatra, soon after the managing panel meeting.
According to Mahapatra, this is the first occasion when the budget proposal for Srimandir has crossed the Rs 100 crore mark. “The budget proposal has a target to collect at least Rs 15 crore from sale of Srimandir land. The state government has recently approved the uniform policy for sale of temple plots. We hope that we can meet the target,” Mahapatra said.
According to the SJTA chief, the budget proposal also eyes more revenue from donations. “Now, we are getting around Rs 4 crore from donations annually. We would devise a strategy to collect more donations. Besides, we would lease out stone quarries owned by the temple to augment revenue,” Mahapatra said.
On the other hand, the salaries and remunerations of Srimandir officials and servitors constitute a sizable portion of the temple expenditure for the 2019-20 fiscal. The temple would spend around Rs 28 crore on the salaries of Srimandir officials while total remunerations and other allowances of servitors have been pegged at Rs 32 crore.
“The budget proposal has allocated Rs 6 crore towards the organisation of annual Rath Yatra and another Rs 5 crore for the welfare of servitors. The temple would spend around Rs 1.5 crore to procure sandalwoods for various rituals,” Mahapatra elaborated.
SJTA sources said the state government has granted Rs 3 crore for the establishment of a Gurukul (school) for the children of servitors’ families. “A private party has shown its interest to bear the entire cost of the school. We would examine their proposals in this regard and take an appropriate decision. We would urge the state government to bear the total expenditure of Srimandir officials and employees,” Mahapatra said.
SJTA sources said the shrine has reserve funds worth Rs 650 crores. It is expected that the reserve fund would cross Rs 700 crore next year, added the sources.
“The state government has raised the monthly allowances of the Gajapati king to Rs 1 lakh from Rs 50,000,” said the official.