GST will be levied on kalyanamandapam, community halls or open areas. It is unclear if GST will be levied on hundi earnings too. Temples earning over Rs 20 lakh per year have come under the purview of the GST.
Visiting temples in Telangana will attract more charges from now on. Ever since the GST has been implemented from July 1, major temples which have revenue earning of more than Rs 20 lakh have been brought under the purview of the tax.
Considering the fact that there are 149 such temples in Telangana, one can imagine the increase in revenue earnings. According to Section 73 of the GST Act, renting of rooms charging more than Rs 1,000 or more per day, renting of premises, kalyanamandapam, community halls or open areas with charges of Rs 10,000 or more per day will have 18% tax extra. Some of the major temple that come under the purview of GST include Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Devasthanam in Nalgonda district; Sri Seetha Ramachandra Swamy Devasthanam in Khammam district; Sri Gnana Saraswathi Ammavari Devasthanam in Adilabad district; Sri Yellamma Pochamma Devasthanam in Hyderabad. According to a report by The Hindu, Tirupati is likely to expect Rs 2,678 crore revenue in the year 2016-2017.
It is, however, not clear whether GST will be levied upon Argitaseva tickets or other services extended by the temples. Speaking to the Deccan Chronicle, Telangana endowment minister A. Indrakaran Reddy said that there are close to 149 such temples. In fact, 16 of these temples had over Rs 1 crore annual earnings while three had over Rs 25 lakh annual earning.
While it is still not clear which of the services in the above-mentioned temples will cost more, officials say that raw materials will be costlier since 5% GST has been imposed on cashew nuts and 12% GST has been levied on Ghee. The temples earn revenues from prasadams, argitaseva and others. Some of the other major revenue earners are money from hundis, lease from lands and other sources. Temple officials are also worried whether the revenue from hundis will be charged with GST or not. It is to be noted that earlier temple earnings were excluded from government tax.
