Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan may be the most powerful person at the central bank, but he is not the top-paid one.
According to latest details published by the RBI under the Right To Information (RTI) Act, Rajan's total 'monthly emoluments' stood at Rs 1,98,700. This includes a basic pay of Rs 90,000, Dearness Allowance of Rs. 1,01,700 and ‘others’ of Rs. 7,000.
You would think the RBI governor, being the top boss, would also be paid the most among the other employees. But that's not the case.
RBI’s list of ‘monthly emoluments of employees’, shows that at least three others had monthly emoluments that were higher than that of Rajan - Gopalkrishna Sitaram Hegde (Rs 4 lakh), Annamalai Arappuli Gounder (Rs 2,20,355) and V Kandasamy (Rs 2.1 lakh).
The latest figures are for the period of June-July 2015.
While RBI did not disclose their designations along with the ‘monthly emoluments’, Hegde has served as its ‘Principal Legal Advisor’ in the past. It could not be ascertained whether these three persons are still with the RBI.
Alpana Killawala, the RBI spokesperson, did not respond to the queries sent by PTI on the salary figures.
Interestingly, the published monthly emoluments of Killawala, designated as principal adviser in the department of communications at RBI, were higher than that of the four deputy governors and 11 executive directors.
The total monthly emoluments for each DG stood at Rs. 1,73,900, while that of the ED was Rs. 1,70,864.
In RBI hierarchy, the governor is followed by four deputy governors and then by the EDs.
Rajan, formerly Chief Economist at the IMF and on-leave professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, joined the RBI as its Governor nearly three years ago and his current term would end in September this year.
His recent comments, wherein he said India being tagged as the ‘bright spot in a rather gloomy global economy’ was like a one-eyed being king among blind, have sparked speculation on whether he would get an extension.
(With inputs from PTI)
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