Tirupati Balaji Temple Opens Demat Account to Accept Donations Through Shares

Central Depositories Service Ltd chairman N Rangachari (centre), MD and CEO P S Reddy (left) and Stock Holding Corporation MD and CEO NGS Ramesh (right), among others, at the opening of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams’ demat account

Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, the managing body of Tirumala Venkateswara Temple, has opened up a demat account to accept donations from devotees in the form of shares and securities.

Demat or dematerialised account is needed for electronically keeping shares and securities.

Tirumala Venkateswara Temple, also known as Tirupati Balaji, is considered to be one of India’s richest temple and receives crores of rupees, precious metals and stock certificates in donations every year.

The temple, as of August 2014, had around 5,000kg of gold deposited with various banks in India.

To do away with the hassle of physical stock certificates and facilitate donation from devotees, Tirumala Venkateswara Temple opened the demat idea, the managing body of the temple said in a statement.

The temple also accepts online donations and has tie-ups with several banks.

The temple has has started its account in Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited (SHCIL) and the account number allotted to it is 1601010000384828.