ICAI President Prasanna Kumar D said the framework should be ready within 100 days, and that the same can be used by other religious institutions | Photo Credit: -

Amid the raging controversy over the alleged theft of donations to the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, the Institute of Chartered Accounts of India (ICAI) is preparing a framework for Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) to improve its account and audit system. On Wednesday, ICAI President Prasanna Kumar D said the framework should be ready within 100 days, and that the same can be used by other religious institutions.

TTD has a budget of around ₹5,500 crore for FY27. TTD is the official custodian of the Sri Venkateswara temple in Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh), and is considered the richest Hindu temple in the world. Kumar said that though the TTD management has its own internal account mechanism, they have 6-7 big home-grown firms maintaining their accounts. “In spite of that, they wanted to improve, take it to the next level. They sought our help. Now, we have taken up the project,” he said, clarifying that the project will start right from the sources of money up to spending everything.

Explaining it further, he said they have got a full proof system which is is run on ERP, but they want to take it to the next level as it is an old system.

no fixed timeline

ICAI Accounting Research Foundation will do the research and prepare the project report. “Our idea is taking this as one example. What we are going to do to at TTD, we want to see this is a project, which can be replicated by other institutions also,” he said. When asked about when the framework will be ready, he said there is no fixed timeline. “Our desire is to do it within the next 100 days,” he said.

According to Kumar, there should be a strong risk management and internal system, and even if there is any small deviation or lapse, then pilferage would happen. His response came to a query on whether the institute would look at having separate accounting standards for temple bodies against the backdrop of alleged embezzlement of donations received at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

Published on June 26, 2026