by Nidhi Verma and Rajendra Jadhav
Reuters.com
The world’s richest Hindu temple is asking to be repaid in gold for longer-term deposits it makes under the Indian government’s monetization scheme in order to make the plan more attractive to the temples that are sitting on thousands of tonnes of the metal.
The Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple, popularly known as the Tirupati, has requested repayment of their deposits of longer than three years under the Gold Monetisation Scheme in the metal rather than cash, D. Sambasiva Rao, the executive director of the temple operator Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) told Reuters on Wednesday.
TTD’s participation in the gold scheme is crucial to its success since the temple in the Southern Andhra Pradesh state holds 7 tonnes of the metal, equivalent to about $277 million at current prices.