ICAI Targets 100-Day Overhaul of Tirupati Temple Accounting

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India is building a new accounting and audit framework for the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams. TTD manages the Sri Venkateswara temple in Tirupati, widely considered the richest Hindu temple globally. ICAI President Prasanna Kumar D said the framework should be ready within 100 days, and that the same design could be reused by other religious institutions.

TTD runs a budget of about ₹5,500 crore for FY27. Kumar said the trust already has its own internal accounts and uses six or seven large home-grown firms for maintenance. “In spite of that, they wanted to improve, take it to the next level. They sought our help. Now, we have taken up the project,” he said. The scope covers the full chain from sources of money to spending.

The project is being run through ICAI’s Accounting Research Foundation. Kumar acknowledged the existing ERP system is adequate but old. “Our idea is taking this as one example. What we are going to do to at TTD, we want to see this is a project, which can be replicated by other institutions also,” he said.

The push comes after public allegations of donation theft at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. When asked whether separate accounting standards for temple bodies were needed, Kumar pointed to risk management. “Even if there is any small deviation or lapse, then pilferage would happen,” he said.

For the market, the TTD mandate signals a possible standardisation wave across India’s large religious trusts. If the framework works, it could be adopted by other temples with budgets running into hundreds of crores. That would likely benefit audit firms, ERP vendors, and compliance consultants already serving the sector. For now, the 100-day target is a goal, not a deadline. There is no fixed timeline, Kumar said.