TIRUPATI:

Chairman

's wise call to pull out fixed deposits from

a few months before the private sector lender's crisis unfolded, has saved the day for the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam, as otherwise the richest temple body in the country would have found itself embroiled right in the epicenter of the Yes Bank crisis, even as the reserve bank of India has now stepped in and announced the draft scheme of reconstruction on Friday.

It was around March-April last year that the

trust board under the chairmanship of Putta Sudhakar Yadav during the Telugu desam party regime in the state of Andhra Pradesh, had decided to park nearly Rs.5000 crore of its fixed deposits with private

out of a total of approximately Rs 14000 crore funds lying with various bankers in the form of fixed deposits.

After the decision was made, TTD deposited nearly Rs 1300 crore with Yes Bank, Rs 1300 crore with Indus Ind bank, Rs 1300 crore with South Indian bank, Rs 600 crore with Axis bank and Rs 130 crore with Federal bank. The rest of funds approximately to the tune of nearly Rs 8000 crore were parked in the form of FDs with various nationalized banks. The deposits were made for a period of one year ending on March 28, 2020. The justification given by TTD then was that private banks were offering attractive interest rates in comparison to nationalized banks.

Meanwhile, after taking charge as the Chairman of the TTD after YSR congress party led government came into force in the state, YV Subba Reddy reviewed TTD's corpus investments lying with various banks during a trust board meeting held in October, 2019. It was during this meeting that the present TTD trust board decided to withdraw fixed deposits from YES Bank and certain other banks immediately.

According to the decision taken to withdraw FDs from private banks prematurely, TTD withdrew Rs 1300 crore from Yes Bank and Rs 1300 crore from South Indian bank between November-December, 2019.

And as other private banks including Axis bank, Federal bank and Indus Ind bank with whom TTD has nearly Rs 2000 crore parked in the form of FDs, the temple administration is learnt to have decided to allow the FDs mature on March 28 this year and then review the investments with private bankers based on CRISIL or ICRA ratings from next financial year starting on April 1,2020.

Speaking to reporters, TTD Chairman YV Subba Reddy said that the timely decision to withdraw FDs from private banks including Yes Bank has helped the temple body to avoid what would otherwise have been a crisis.

"After the TTD trust board meeting in October, TTD's risky investments with private bankers was discussed with Chief minister

who advised to ensure the temple trust's money is well protected. Based on CM's advise, we withdrew our FDs from Yes Bank just a few months before the present crisis unfolded and our decision definitely proved to be wise and timely," asserted YV Subba Reddy.