Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani kept his annual salary capped at Rs. 15 crore for the sixth year in a row even as the remuneration of key executives went up.
Mr. Ambani, the richest Indian, has kept salary, perquisites and allowances and commission at Rs. 15 crore since 2008-09, foregoing almost Rs. 24 crore per annum.
“The Chairman and Managing Director’s compensation has been set at Rs. 15 crore as against Rs. 38.86 crore as per shareholders’ approval, reflecting his desire to continue to set a personal example for moderation in managerial compensation levels,” RIL said in its annual report for the financial year ended March 31, 2014.
His remuneration for 2013-14 included Rs. 4.16 crore as salary, perquisites and allowances of Rs. 60 lakh, retirement benefits of Rs. 82 lakh and Rs. 9.42 crore as commission on profit.
In the previous year, while his salary and perquisites and allowances were the same, he got commission of Rs. 9.35 crore and Rs. 89 lakh in retirement benefits.
Mr. Ambani voluntarily capped his compensation at Rs. 15 crore in October 2009 amid a debate over right-sizing of CEO salaries.
While Mr. Ambani’s salary remained capped, his key executives including oil and gas head P.M.S. Prasad and refinery chief Pawan Kumar Kapil saw increases in compensation.
Mr. Prasad’s annual package went up to Rs. 6.03 crore from Rs. 5.47 crore in 2012-13 after getting a higher performance-linked incentive of Rs. 3.67 crore (Rs. 3.12 crore the previous year).
Mr. Kapil earned Rs. 1.05 crore performance-linked incentive to take his total package to Rs. 2.49 crore in 2013-14. In the previous year, he earned Rs. 1.99 crore, including Rs. 65 lakh performance-linked incentive.
The criteria and the entitlement for performance-linked incentives for the two executives are determined by the Human Resources, Nomination and Remuneration Committee, RIL said.
Mr. Ambani’s cousins Nikhil R. Meswani and Hital R. Meswani saw their compensation rise to Rs. 12.12 crore from Rs. 11.05 crore a year ago. RIL’s non-executive directors also got Rs. 50 lakh each as commission, besides sitting fees ranging from Rs. 1 lakh to 4 lakh.
Apart from Mr. Ambani, the RIL board has the Meswani brothers, Prasad, Kapil and company founder Dhirubhai Ambani’s brother Ramniklal H Ambani. Its independent directors include Dharam Vir Kapur, Dipak C Jain, Mansingh L Bhakta, Yogendra P Trivedi, Mahesh P Modi, Ashok Misra, Raghunath A Mashelkar and Adil Zainulbhai.
