Chartered accountants' apex body ICAI is working with Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTDs) to help monetise its land assets through real estate investment trusts, as well as ways to verify and value gold that is in the possession of the trust.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is also in advanced stages of preparing the updated accounting manual for TTD, the official custodian of the Sri Venkateswara temple in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, and is considered the richest Hindu shrine in the world.

An ICAI official on Sunday said the institute is working with TTD on various projects, including the accounting manual, setting up of Real Estate Investment Trusts (Reits) and valuing its gold assets.

Reits allow entities to monetise their real estate assets, and TTD has large parcels of land, mainly donated by devotees.

On Saturday at a session here, ICAI President Prasanna Kumar D said its work for preparing the accounting manual for TTD is in the advanced stages of completion.

TTD project is going to be taken up as a model project for other major temples. The project includes the accounting framework, applicability of the standards and accounting policies, he said.

Besides, he said that TTD wants the institute to conduct capacity-building efforts for its staff.

According to the ICAI official, TTD had an accounting manual that was developed three decades ago, and the manual is being updated by the institute.

Since this is the richest and the largest temple in India, "what we hope is that the policy manual which will come for TTD may be followed by the other similar trusts or organisations in India," he said.

All elements, including collections, payments and balance sheet, are being covered under the institute's project for TTD.

In June this year, Prasanna Kumar had said TTD has got a full-proof system and the entire thing is now run on ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), and they want to take it to the next level since the current one is an old system.

TTD had approached the institute for the project.

ICAI has over five lakh members.