Usually, the discussion on the income and property of the temple at the tea shop finally concludes that there is no tax on temples and monasteries and their income is tax-free. Let us tell you that it is not the case that notices are being sent to temples to pay GST.

According to a report by Money Control, India's richest trust Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) will pay 1.5 percent GST on its annual income of Rs 4,774 crore in the financial year 2024-25.

The battle over tax on the temple

A controversy has erupted over the claims of imposing GST on temples, the opposition party Congress has attacked the BJP, and the round of allegations and counter-allegations continues between the two. Last week, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh pointed to a news published in a Tamil daily, which claimed that temples were being asked to pay GST.

On the other hand, BJP leader Amit Malviya accused him of distorting the facts and said that temples and religious places enjoy wide exemptions and GST applies only to commercial activities, not religious or spiritual activities.

Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple gets notice.

In November 2024, Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, one of the richest temples in the country, was sent a notice for payment of pending taxes. Media reports suggest that a GST tax of Rs 1.57 crore was demanded for seven years, while the temple earned Rs 700 crore in 2014 alone.

Temples earn huge amount.

Vaishno Devi in ​​Katra, Jammu, another prosperous temple, earned Rs 683 crore in FY24, of which Rs 255 crore came from tax-free offerings, and Rs 133.3 crore came from interest. In the case of the TTD, more than a third of its Rs 4,800 crore revenue came from hundi collections. The tax liability, in terms of GST, has been around Rs 130 crore in the five years to FY21.

How much do temples earn? While detailed accounts of temples are not available, the revenue of India’s two largest temple trusts has doubled in the last seven years. According to the Tirupati Trust’s website, its budget in FY17 was Rs 2,678 crore, which rose to Rs 5,145 crore in FY25. The Vaishno Devi Trust’s income has increased from Rs 380 crore in FY17 to Rs 683 crore in FY24.

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