SJTA Picks UBI, Bank Of Baroda For Depositing Jagannath Temple Funds

Puri: The Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) on Thursday decided to keep the corpus and temple funds of Lord Jagannath in the Union Bank of India (UBI) and Bank of Baroda (BoB) as fixed deposit for one year.

Briefing mediapersons here, Development Administrator (Unnayan Prasasak) of the temple Ajay Kumar Jena said that the SJTA had invited fresh tenders from 16 public sector banks— State Bank of India (SBI), Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda (BoB), Union Bank of India (UBI), Bank of India, Andhra Bank, UCO Bank, Punjab National Bank (PNB), Allahabad Bank, United Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Central Bank of India, OBC, Indian Bank, Syndicate Bank and Corporation Bank, Puri, of which 10 banks had participated in the closed-room bidding. Of the 10 banks, the UBI and BoB offered the highest annual interest rate at 6.26 per cent per annum.

Of the total temple fund of Rs 389 crore, Rs 102 crore of the foundation fund has been kept in the SBI account of the temple while of the remaining Rs 287 crore corpus and temple funds, 50 per cent each will be kept in the UBI and BoB, Jena added.

Of the Rs 545 crore temple funds, the YES Bank on March 19 had remitted the temple and corpus funds amounting to Rs 397,23,27,636 to the SBI account of the temple, which included the principal amount of Rs 389 crore and the interest amount of Rs 8.23 crore, he informed.

“The remaining Rs 156 crore kept in the Yes Bank in two fixed deposit accounts will be remitted along with the interest after their maturity on March 30. After this amount is remitted, the SJTA will decide on depositing the amount in two public sector banks,” he pointed out.

The SJTA had earlier picked UBI to keep the corpus and temple funds in three-year fixed deposit as it had quoted the highest annual rate of interest at 5.75 per cent. But it later cancelled the tender after coming to know that the rate of interest is higher for one-year fixed deposit.