Puri: The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA), Thursday, decided to keep Rs 343 crore of Srimandir funds with Union Bank of India (UBI) and Bank of Baroda (BoB) as fixed deposit for a year.
“Rs 287 crore corpus fund and Rs 56 crore temple fund of the 12th century shrine will be deposited with UBI and BoB equally. The banks will offer 6.26 per cent interest on the deposits,” Srimandir administrator (Development) Ajay Kumar Jena said.
The temple administration had, March 23, nullified its earlier tender and invited new quotations from 16 nationalised banks to ensure safe keeping of the Lord’s money. Around 10 nationalised banks submitted their applications by 11am, Thursday.
“Initially, UBI expressed its willingness to offer 6.20 rate of interest, BoB offered 6.15 per cent interest and Canara Bank offered 5.77 rate of interest on the deposits. As per the guidelines, we asked BoB and Canara Bank to scale-up their interest rate. While Canara Bank denied, BoB agreed for 6.21 rate of interest on the fixed deposit. Soon after, UBI increased its offer and agreed for 6.25 per cent. Later, both UBI and BoB agreed to offer 6.26 per cent interest on the deposit,” Jena pointed out.
Jena further said that Rs 102 crore foundation fund of the temple has been deposited with the State Bank of India.