In July 2016 when Indian stock-market benchmark Sensex was at 27000, the city's revered Shree Siddhivinayak Ganapati Temple Trust in Prabhadevi coincidentally opened a CDSL (Central Depository Services Ltd) demat account to accept donations in the form of shares and securities from 'Navasacha Ganapati' devotees.
It was a novel facility being offered to devotees for the first time by a temple trust in Maharashtra. But in the next 16 months that saw Sensex breaching 33000-mark, the devotees of Ashtavinayak donated just a little over Rs 34,500, much to the dismay of the temple's trust.
Blame it on tight-fisted devotees of Lord Ganesha, or simply the lack of awareness about the facility, the truth is the bull-run hasn't helped the temple.
The CDSL demat account No. 12047200 11413505 with SBICAP Securities Ltd has so far seen only a pittance of donations in the form of "shares and securities" from devotees. The trust gets around Rs 75 crore of donations in cash and kind every year.
The grand temple in the financial capital, visited by millions of devotees every month, is also frequented by powerful politicians, top industrialists and rich Bollywood film stars. Apple CEO Tim Cook began his India trip in 2016 with morning prayers at the temple.
Speaking with DNA Money, Shree Siddhivinayak Ganapati Temple Trust executive officer Sanjiv Patil said, "The account was opened for those devotees who want to make donations in form of shares and securities. The Trust has instructed SBI to sell the shares/securities immediately after receipt of them and transfer the amount as a donation into Trust's saving account. So the portfolio value is nil as of today's date (December 5, 2017). Since the opening of the account, till the date, Trust has received Rs 34,524 through 11 donation transactions. It has come to our notice that there is less response from the devotees."
The meagre amount of Rs 34,524 is nothing for one of the country's richest temples. Shree Siddhivinayak Ganapati Temple Trust reported an income of Rs 80 crore in 2015-16, with Rs 44 crore coming from abhishek, tirth prasad, donations, etc, Rs 30 crore from interest inflow (fixed deposits, mutual funds, gold deposits) and the rest from other sources.
The trust recorded a surplus of Rs 21.87 crore in FY16 alone, up from Rs 18.83 crore in FY15. The trust was in the news after it had deposited over 50 kilogram of yellow metal in Gold Monetisation Scheme. It also auctions jewellery it holds around four times a year.
On the other hand, another major temple trust - Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) in Andhra Pradesh, which had opened a CDSL Demat Account No. 16010100 00384828 in 2015 to accept shares and securities as donations, is reportedly receiving encouraging response from devotees.
Sunil Alvares, chief operating officer, CDSL Ventures, said, "CDSL cannot disclose details of individual accounts and you will have to contact the respective account holder. Securities are being received. No comments on the response."
Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams spokespersons did not respond to queries despite repeated reminders.
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