Mukesh Ambani keeps salary capped at Rs 15 crore for 6th year

NEW DELHI: 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.

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.

Ambani voluntarily capped his compensation at Rs 15 crore in October 2009 amid a debate over right-sizing of CEO salaries.

While 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.

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).

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.

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 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.