Wipro Chairman Azim Premji's salary drops 63% to $1,21,853 in FY17, CEO Neemuchwala's up 16% to $2.09 mn

New Delhi: Wipro Chairman Azim Premji’s pay package saw a huge 63 percent fall at US $1,21,853 (about Rs 79 lakh) last fiscal, with no commission being paid during the year. The IT czar had drawn a larger compensation of US $3,27,993 (about Rs 2.17 crore) in the previous fiscal. Premji’s package included US $66,464 in salary and allowances and US $41,742 (others) and US $13,647 in long-term compensation (deferred benefit - company’s contribution to the Provident Fund and Pension Fund), totalling to US $121,853 for the year 2016-17, as per documents with the US SEC. “Azim H Premji is entitled to a commission at the rate of 0.5 percent on incremental net profits of Wipro for the fiscal 2017 over the previous year… For the year ended 31 March, 2017, commission paid to Azim H Premji is INR Nil,” the document said. It added that all other executives received variable pay under a quarterly performance linked scheme, based on key parameters of individual or combined performance of the business unit, division or segment or the company as a whole. [caption id=“attachment_1062761” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro. Reuters[/caption] In 2015-16, Premji had received a commission of US $1,39,634. There has been a decline in compensation for key executives across the industry and it is reflective of the slow pace of growth for players. Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka, for example, saw his pay package coming down by 67 percent to Rs 16.01 crore in 2016-17 from Rs 48.73 crore in the previous year. Wipro saw its net income for the full year decline 4.7 percent over the previous fiscal. For the fourth quarter, its IT services revenue declined marginally over the October-December quarter. However, Wipro CEO Abidali Neemuchwala’s pay package saw 16 percent increase to US $2.09 million during FY 2016-17, which included US $8,00,000 in salary, US $1,50,244 in commission, US $1.13 million (others) and US $9,014 (deferred benefits). Neemuchwala was elevated as the CEO on 1 February, 2016 from the position of COO. The high compensation for leaders in the tech sector also come under spotlight after Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy had questioned pay hikes for senior executives at the Bengaluru-based firm. Rishad Premji, chief strategy officer and Wipro board member, took home a salary of US $2,60,015 in 2016-17 compared to US $325,462 in the previous fiscal, a drop of 20 percent.