Fact Check: Did Tirupati temple transfer Rs. 2,300 cr to AP government?

NewsMeter first searched for news reports to verify if such huge sums had been transferred from the two temples to the respective state governments. We did not find any reports that supported the claim. No media organization or official websites had posted any information about the transfers. If the claim was true, all major newspapers would have reported it.

Second, the Tirumala Tirupati Temple's (TTD) annual budget for 2021-22 is Rs. 2,937.82 crore and its annual contribution to the state government is only Rs. 50 crore.

Out of the Rs. 2,937.82 crore, Rs. 1,308.15 crore is for human resource payments, Rs. 385.60 crore is for procurement of materials, Rs. 250 crore for engineering capital works, Rs. 180 crore for engineering maintenance works, and Rs. 150 crore for corpus and other investments. (Source: TTD News, Indian Express, The Hindu)

Meanwhile, in September 2021 the AP government had passed an ordinance increasing the annual contribution of TTD to the state to Rs. 50 crore under the provisions of Andhra Pradesh Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowment Act 1987. (Source: ANI News)

TTD's annual budget is around Rs. 2,900 crore. It does not have enough funds to transfer Rs. 2,300 crore to the Andhra Pradesh government.

A similar claim had gone viral in 2020 but TTD chairman Y.V Subbareddy had refuted it. He had said the claim that TTD had transferred Rs. 2,300 crore to the Andhra treasury is totally baseless.

We also searched for any news about the Siddhi Vinayaka temple transferring Rs. 600 crore to the Maharashtra government but found none. The official social media accounts of the temple also did not mention such a transfer.

In 2020, a PIL had been filed in the Bombay High Court challenging the transfer of Rs. 10 crore from the Siddhivinayak Ganapati Temple Trust to the Maharashtra government. The PIL had called the transfer illegal. (Source: Mumbai Mirror)

If a huge amount like Rs. 600 crore had been transferred from the Siddhi Vinayaka temple to the Maharashtra treasury, it would have made the news. Since there are no reports of such a transfer, this indicates that it did not take place.

In 2016, India Today had reported that the Siddhi Vinayaka Temple ranked fifth among the richest temples in the country with an estimated annual revenue of Rs. 48-125 crore. In 2020, sources told News18 that the average annual income of the temple is around Rs. 96 crore. Clearly, the temple could not have transferred Rs, 600 crore with this revenue.

There is no evidence that Rs. 2,300 crore was transferred from the Tirupati temple to the Andhra treasury and Rs. 600 crore from the Siddhi Vinayaka temple to the Maharashtra treasury.