Puri: The Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee, Tuesday, approved a balanced budget of Rs 154 crore for Srimandir for 2020-21 financial year.
The size of this year’s Srimandir budget is Rs 52 crore more than the previous one. The budget estimate for 2019-20 fiscal was Rs 102 crore.
The temple managing committee headed by Gajapati king Dibyasingha Deb approved this year’s budget proposal after a thorough deliberation for around four hours at Niladri Bhakta Niwas here.
“This is a balanced budget. However, the revenue collection of Srimandir has gone down this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic while expenditure has gone up significantly. Srimandir managing committee has stressed on raising revenue collection,” said Shree Jagannath Temple chief administrator Krishan Kumar.
The SJTA chief revealed that the temple managing committee has decided to introduce an online donation system to boost the revenue collection. “Devotees should extend their support to SJTA to raise revenue collection. Srimandir has been shut for devotees for last eight months but rituals are being performed without any interruption. This year’s Rath Yatra was organised amid the pandemic. The SJTA has also arranged special Covid care homes for servitors. These things have also added to the temple expenditure,” he said.
As per the budget proposal for 2020-21 fiscal, Srimandir expects an assistance of Rs 47 crore from the state government and sets a target of Rs 40-crore interest earnings. This apart, the temple aims at receiving Rs 5-crore mining royalty and another Rs 5 crore by selling landed properties.
On the other hand, the temple will spend around Rs 40 crore for the performance of routine as well as special rituals while it has allocated Rs 16.43 crore for developmental work. The establishment expenditure has been pegged at Rs 24 crore while Rs 10.61 crore has been allocated for the welfare of servitors.
“The budget proposal has allocated Rs 40 crore for the performance of rituals. Till date, the temple administration has spent Rs 22 crore on this head. Special arrangement was made for this year’s Rath Yatra,” said a temple official.
