Following the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes, the Kanaka Durga temple in Vijayawada has reportedly received a 'hundi' collection of Rs 2.89 crore in the last one month.
This is an increase of Rs 1 crore compared to the usual amount it rakes in, and it was noted when the temple management took up a two-day long counting exercise on Wednesday and Thursday.
According to reports, Rs 1,90,78,784 in cash was counted on Wednesday and another Rs 98,56,970 was counted on Thursday.
It was reported that even during Dasara festival, the received hundi collections was Rs 1.78 crore, while it was Rs 1.84 crore between August and September.
On an average, the temple receives Rs 1.5 crore every month.
“Normally , black money offenders will deposit a lot of money in temple hundis as they do not have other options. Evidently , the number of old high denomination currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 has increased slightly and the trend will continue,” an official told Times of India.
Other than the demonetised currency, the temple also received Rs 100 notes worth Rs 42.98 lakh, 800 grams of gold and 10.8 kg of silver.
However, on Wednesday a temple official mentioned that temple has witnessed a revenue dip.
"With lack of sufficient Rs 100 currency notes, temple staff are told to sell Rs 300 darshan tickets to only those who carried enough change with them. The offerings made by the devotees through old notes are also being rejected in last few days," a temple official told The New Indian Express.