RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani’s salary capped for tenth year in a row; will continue to take home Rs 15 cr annually

New Delhi: Richest Indian Mukesh Ambani has kept his annual salary from company Reliance Industries capped at Rs 15 crore for the tenth year on the trot. Ambani has kept salary, perquisites and allowances and commission together at Rs 15 crore since 2008-09, forgoing almost Rs 24 crore per annum. This is at a time when remunerations of all whole-time directors of the company, including cousins Nikhil and Hital Meswani, saw handsome raise in the fiscal year ended on March 31, 2018. “Compensation of Mukesh D Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, has been set at Rs 15 crore, reflecting his desire to continue to set a personal example for moderation in managerial compensation levels,” RIL said in its latest annual report. His remuneration for 2017-18 included Rs 4.49 crore as salary and allowances, which is marginally higher than Rs 4.16 crore he got in previous 2016-17 fiscal. Commission has however been unchanged at Rs 9.53 crore while perquisites have declined to Rs 27 lakh from Rs 60 lakh. Retirement benefits were Rs 71 lakh. [caption id=“attachment_4273683” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani. YouTube screengrab[/caption] Ambani voluntarily capped his compensation at Rs 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 Rs 19.99 crore each. They had earned Rs 16.58 crore each in 2016-17. In 2015-16, Nikhil had got Rs 14.42 crore while Hital took home Rs 14.41 crore. In 2014-15, they had got Rs 12.03 crore each. Also, one of his key executives, Executive Director P M S Prasad saw his remuneration go up to Rs 8.99 crore from Rs 7.87 crore in 2016-17, Rs 7.23 crore in 2015-16 and Rs 6.03 crore in 2014-15. Refinery chief Pawan Kumar Kapil saw his compensation rise to Rs 3.47 crore. In the previous fiscal, his remuneration had fallen to Rs 2.54 crore, from Rs 2.94 crore in 2015-16. He had earned Rs 2.41 crore in 2014-15. RIL’s non-executive directors, including Nita Ambani, also got Rs 1.5 crore each as commission, besides sitting fees. The commission was Rs 1.3 crore in the previous year. Ambani’s wife Nita Ambani, a non-executive director on the company’s board, earned Rs 6 lakh sitting fee. Apart from Ambani, the RIL board has Meswani brothers, Prasad and Kapil as wholetime directors. Besides Nita Ambani, other non-executive directors include Mansingh L Bhakta, Yogendra P Trivedi, D V Kapur, Ashok Misra, Dipak C Jain, Raghunath A Mashelkar, Adil Zainulbhai, Raminder Singh Gujral and Shumeet Banerji. (Disclosure - Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd)