NEW DELHI -- Reliance Industries' Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani kept his annual salary capped at ₹15 crore for the eighth year in a row even as the remuneration of all executive directors on firm's board rose.
Ambani, the richest Indian, has kept salary, perquisites and allowances and commission at ₹15 crore since 2008-09, foregoing 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 2015-16.
His remuneration for 2015-16 included ₹4.16 crore as salary and another ₹60 lakh by way of prequisites and allowances. He got retirement benefits of ₹71 lakh and ₹9.53 crore as commission on profit. While the base salary is the same as the previous year, the commission on profit has marginally risen from ₹9.41 crore in 2014-15.
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 ₹14.42 crore and ₹14.41 crore, respectively. They had in the previous year got ₹12.03 crore.
Also, his key executives, including Executive Director PMS Prasad saw his remuneration go up to ₹7.23 crore from ₹6.03 crore, previously.
Refinery chief Pawan Kumar Kapil saw his compensation rise to ₹2.94 crore in 2015-16, higher than ₹2.41 crore in 2014-15.
RIL's non-executive directors including Nita Ambani, also got ₹1.2 crore each as commission, besides sitting fees.
Ambani's wife Nita Ambani, who is a non-executive director on the company's board, earned ₹6 lakh sitting fee and a commission of ₹1.20 crore, according to the annual report.
Apart from Ambani, the RIL board has Meswani brothers, Prasad and Kapil as wholetime directors.
Besides Nita Ambani, other non-executive directors include Dharam Vir Kapur, Dipak C Jain, Mansingh L Bhakta, Yogendra P Trivedi, Raminder Singh Gujral, Ashok Misra, Raghunath A Mashelkar and Adil Zainulbhai.
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