By: Shilpa Sharma
INDUSTRIALIST Mukesh Ambani, the richest Indian, drew no salary from his flagship firm Reliance Industries Ltd in the fiscal year 2020-21, as he voluntarily renounced his remuneration in wake of the pandemic hitting the business and the economy.
In its latest annual report, Reliance said Ambani’s remuneration for the financial year ended March 31 was “nil.”
In the previous fiscal year, he drew Rs 150 million (£1.5m) salary from the company, same as in the previous 11 years.
“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 Meswani and Hital Meswani, both executive directors remained unchanged at Rs 240m (£2.3m). Both of them received commissions worth Rs 172.8m (£1.7m).
Ambani’s wife Nita, a non-executive director on the company’s board, earned Rs 800,000 (£7,754) sitting fee and another Rs 16.5m (£159,899) commission for the year.
Apart from Ambani, the RIL board has Meswani brothers, P M S Prasad and P K 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 16.5m (£159,899) commission for the year besides a sitting fee of up to Rs 3.6m (£34,882)
