Puri: The corpus fund and temple fund of Srimandir will be parked with Union Bank of India (UBI) for a three-year period with 5.75 per cent rate of interest, Srimandir administrator (Development) Ajay Kumar Jena said Friday.
Although there is no clarification on the exact amount to be deposited with UBI, Jena said that Rs 102 crore foundation fund of the 12th century shrine will be deposited with State Bank of India (SBI).
According to sources, the temple authorities had Wednesday invited quotations from at least 16 nationalised banks that would ensure safe deposit of Lord’s corpus and temple funds while offering a competitive rate of interest on it.
“As many as eight nationalised banks—SBI, Canara Bank, UBI, UCO Bank, Punjab National Bank, Allahabad Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Indian Bank—submitted their quotations by 11am Friday, the scheduled deadline for applications. While UBI offered 5.75 rate of interest, Indian Bank offered 5.40 per cent and Canara Bank offered 5 per cent per annum.
According to the decision of the temple managing committee and subsequent approval of the state government, banks offering the second and third highest rate of interest will be asked to scale up their interest rate to that of the first bank offering the highest rate of interest on the deposits. In case of denial by the two banks, the amount will be deposited in a single bank—the one offering the highest rate of interest. “Indian Bank and Canara Bank were reluctant to scale up their rate of interest. Hence, we decided to deposit the corpus fund and temple fund with UBI for a three-year term with 5.75 rate of interest,” Jena said, adding that they are yet to decide on the amount to be deposited with UBI.
The UBI’s Puri Main branch general manager, Prasanta Senapathy, however, said that Rs 352 crore of Srimandir funds will be deposited with their branch.
Notably, after much hue and cry, a crisis-ridden Yes Bank Thursday, a day after resuming full banking services, remitted more than Rs 397 crore Srimandir funds to the SBI account of the 12th century shrine. The Reserve Bank of India had imposed a moratorium on the private lender which ended March 18.
