Mukesh Ambani draws nil salary after giving up remuneration in light of pandemic

NEW DELHI: Richest Indian Mukesh Ambani drew no salary from his flagship firm Reliance Industries Ltd in the fiscal year ended March 31 as he voluntarily gave up remuneration in light of the pandemic hitting the business and the economy.

In its latest annual report, Reliance said Ambani's remuneration for financial year 2020-21 was "nil."

In the previous fiscal year, he drew a Rs 15 crore salary from the company - the same as in the previous 11 years.

Ambani has kept salary, perquisites, allowances and commission together at Rs 15 crore since 2008-09, forgoing over Rs 24 crore per annum.

"In light of the COVID-19 outbreak in India, which has exacted a huge toll on the societal, economic and industrial health of the nation, Mukesh D.

Ambani, the Chairman and Managing Director, has voluntarily decided to forego his salary," the company had said in June last year.

Remuneration of his cousins Nikhil and Hital Meswani remained unchanged at Rs 24 crore but this time it included Rs 17.28 crore commission.

Executive Directors P M S Prasad and Pawan Kumar Kapil saw their remuneration go up after they got performance-linked incentives for two years.

While Prasad drew Rs 11.99 crore in 2020-21, up from Rs 11.15 crore in the previous year, Kapil got Rs 4.24 crore as against Rs 4.04 crore in 2019-20.

The payment of Prasad and Kapil included "performance-linked incentives for FY 2019-20 and FY 2020-21," the annual report said.

Ambani's wife Nita, a non-executive director on the company's board, earned Rs 8 lakh sitting fee and another Rs 1.65 crore commission for the year.

Apart from Ambani, the RIL board has Meswani brothers, Prasad and Kapil as wholetime directors.

Besides Nita Ambani, other non-executive directors include Yogendra P Trivedi, Dipak C Jain, Raghunath A Mashelkar, Adil Zainulbhai, Raminder Singh Gujral, Shumeet Banerji, former SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya and former CVC K V Chowdary.

All independent directors got a Rs 1.65 crore commission for the year besides a sitting fee of up to Rs 36 lakh.