The Tirupati Temple, the richest Hindu temple, which is believed to have been the abode of Lord Venkateswara for 5,000 years, may become the biggest depositor in PM Modi’s gold monetization scheme with more than 5.5 tonnes of gold.

The gold monetization scheme was launched in a bid to persuade individuals, institutions and rich temples to deposit some of their gold stash with the banks for recycling purpose. This scheme aims to use the gold which is lying unused and reduce the imports which are hurting the Indian economy.

The scheme has only attracted about one kg in a month out of a total hoard of over 20,000 tonnes. Tirupati Temple or Sri Venkateswara Swamy Temple could soon come to the rescue of Modi’s plan to recycle tonnes of idle gold and cut economy-hurting imports.

Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, the finance minister of Andhra Pradesh said, “It’s a good scheme. We have already issued a directive to go for the scheme.”

India is the world’s second-biggest consumer of gold after China and the country’s insatiable appetite meant imports of the precious metal accounted for 28 percent of India’s trade deficit in the year ending March 2013.

Seeking divine blessings, devotees have offered billions of dollars worth of jewellery, bars and coins to temples over the centuries. Most temples are secretive about their stash and their gold is often stored in subterranean vaults.

Major part of gold stock of Tirupati temple is already deposited in various banks under previous monetization schemes which offer about 1% interest, said D Sambasiva Rao, executive officer of the trust that manages the temple.

“They (temple investment committee) will evaluate and whichever scheme is beneficial we are going to do that,” he said, adding that they can move its entire hoard to Modi’s programme if convinced. Rao said the temple would take a final decision in the next 10-15 days.

The temple gets offerings of almost one tonne of gold every year and all of that could also be deposited under the new scheme once a decision is made, he added. Not to forget that this scheme offers interest at the rate of 2.5% annually.

But Mumbai’s two-century-old Shree Siddhivinayak temple, which is devoted to Lord Ganesha, seems unconvinced as banks accept deposits only after gold is melted down, leading to a potential loss in weight due to impurities.

The scheme “will help in reducing our gold imports and save foreign exchange and deal with the problem of current account deficit”, the finance ministry said in a statement on Friday.