Ambani making good on salary pledge

Reliance Industries boss Mukesh Ambani kept his annual salary capped at ?15 crore (Dh8.54 million) for the ninth year in a row and did not take any stock option even as the remuneration of most executive directors on the board rose.

Ambani, the richest Indian, has kept salary, perquisites and allowances and commission at ?15 crore since 2008-09, forgoing almost ?24 crore per annum.

"The chairman and managing director's compensation has been set at ?15 crore as against ?38.75 crore as approved, reflecting his desire to continue to set a personal example for moderation in managerial compensation levels," RIL said in its annual report for 2016-17.

His remuneration for 2016-17 included ?4.16 crore as salary and another ?60 lakh by way of perquisites and allowances. He got retirement benefits of ?71 lakh and ?9.53 crore as commission on profit.

The base salary, allowances, retirement benefits and commission on profit are the same as what he got in 2015-16.

Ambani voluntarily capped his compensation at ?15 crore in October 2009 amid a debate over right-sizing of CEO salaries. The salary cap continued even as all other executive directors saw their remunerations go up.

Ambani's cousins Nikhil R. Meswani and Hital R. Meswani saw their compensation rise to ?16.58 crore each. They had earned ?14.42 crore and ?14.41 crore, respectively, in the previous year. In 2014-15, they had got ?12.03 crore each.

Also, one of his key executives, executive director P.M.S. Prasad, saw his remuneration go up to ?7.87 crore in 2016-17, from ?7.23 crore in 2015-16. Refinery chief Pawan Kumar Kapil, however, saw his compensation drop to ?2.54 crore from ?2.94 crore in 2015 -16. He had earned Rs 2.41 crore in 2014-15.

Source: .khaleej Times