Temples selling laddus at a loss

Temples are nowadays selling laddu prasadam at a loss, thanks to the unprecedented hike in prices of sugar which is sold at Rs 45 per kg in the open market.

Major temples located in Simhachalam, Visakhapatnam, Dwaraka Tirumala, Vemulavada, Yadagirigutta and other places sell each laddu for Rs 5, a price fixed by the endowment department in 2007 to bring uniformity. But the price of sugar was only Rs 15 in 2007.

Temples are now incurring loss of Rs 1 on each laddu due to hike in sugar price. The cumulative losses would cross lakhs of rupees per month if the sugar price does not plummet in the near future.

Though it is going to be burden for Tirumla Tirupati Devasthanam, it can offset its losses from the huge offerings made by devotees.

But that is not the case with other major temples that do not have copious funds to dip into.

Authorities of these temples sought permission to increase the price but the minister for endowments, Mr Gade Venkata Reddy, is reportedly not too keen on this.

“We are searching for other options to offset the losses because of the hike in sugar price,” said Mr P. Sundar Kumar, commissioner of the endowments department.