Entrance Fee at ASI Monuments - Government earned ₹ 284 crore in 3 years
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
November 5, 2018
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) manages more than 110 monuments in 19 different states. ASI earns revenue from entrance fee at these monuments and remitted to the consolidated fund of India. As per government data, a total of ₹ 284.18 crore was earned in entrance fee in 3 years between 2013-14 & 2015-16.
As the ‘Statue of Unity’ was unveiled in Gujarat, there have been questions around the revenue earned through tourism at such monuments. Government earns direct revenues through entrance fee at various monuments managed by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Government data indicates that a total revenue of ₹ 284.18 crore was earned in three years between 2013-14 & 2015-16 through entrance fee at 116 different monuments managed by the ASI. The revenue in 2013-14 was₹ 96.85 crore while it reduced marginally to ₹ 93.95 crore in 2015-16.
ASI manages 116 Monuments in 19 States
The ASI is an attached office of the  Ministry of Culture. It manages various ancient monuments & heritage sites across the country. It currently manages & maintains 116 different ticketed monuments in 19 different states. All these monuments have a ticketed entry and the fee collected is remitted to the consolidated fund of India. Out of the 116 monuments, there are 17 monuments from Uttar Pradesh and 16 from Maharashtra, 12 from Karnataka, 10 from Delhi and 8 from Madhya Pradesh. Apart from these, various state governments have sent 22 proposals for various monuments to be given central protection. These proposals are at various stages of consideration. These include birth places of Dr. B R Ambedkar and Madan Mohan Malviya.
Uttar Pradesh & Delhi account for 69% of all the Revenue
The total revenue through entry ticketing hasn’t crossed ₹ 100 crore in a single year till 2015-16. It was ₹ 96.85 crore in 2013-14, ₹ 93.38 crore in 2014-15 and ₹ 93.95 crore in 2015-16. This is the latest data available in the public domain through parliament questions. Factly has filed an application under RTI for the data of 2016-17 & 2017-18.
While Uttar Pradesh & Delhi account for only 23% of all the monuments managed by ASI, they account for  69% of the total entrance fee earned between 2013-14 & 2015-16. Out of the ₹ 284.18 crore earned in these three years, UP alone accounted for ₹ 123.62 crore followed by Delhi with ₹ 72.87 crore. Maharashtra was third with ₹ 21.60 crore and Karnataka with ₹ 18.16 crore was fourth. None of the other states could contribute a revenue of more than ₹ 10 crore in these 3 years. 13 of the 19 states contributed revenue of more than ₹ 1 crore each, while the rest of the six (6) states contributed less than a crore each. In terms of the average revenue per monument Uttar Pradesh and Delhi are followed by Telangana in the third place. With only 3 such monuments, revenue from Telangana was ₹ 5.88 crore for these 3 years.
Taj Mahal on the Top
As expected, Taj Mahal collected the most revenue in entrance fee with ₹ 60.94 crore in these three years followed by the Agra Fort with ₹ 34.23 crore. The next three in terms of revenue earned are monuments from Delhi. Qutb Minar (₹ 31.30 crore), Humayun’s Tomb (₹ 19.54 crore) and Red Fort (₹ 18.21 crore) were in the top five. The other monuments in the top ten were Fatehpur Sikri, World Heritage Site in Hampi, Monuments in Mahabalipuram, Sun temple in Konark and the group of temples in Khajuraho.
Hampi saw 75% drop in Revenue in two years
The drop in overall revenue from 2013-14 to 2015-16 crore is largely because of the drop in revenue from Taj Mahal & the monuments in Hampi. There is close to 75% drop in ticket revenue from Hampi from 2013-14 to 2015-16 (from ₹ 5.82 crore in 2013-14 to ₹ 1.55 crore in 2015-16). In the case of Taj Mahal, the revenue dropped from ₹ 21.82 crore in 2013-14 to ₹ 17.87 crore in 2015-16. Revenue increased in 2015-16 compared to 2013-14 for 87 of the 116 monuments while it dropped for 28 other monuments. Revenue dropped by more than 10 lakh for 10 monuments including Taj Mahal.
Featured Image: [By Yann], [CC BY-SA 4.0]