IT giant Infosys paid its top management personnel a total remuneration of $10.7 million (over Rs 50 crore) during the last fiscal, marking an increase of about 50% from the previous year.
The remuneration paid to its key management personnel, which includes directors and executive council members, had remained almost unchanged at about $7 million for fiscals, 2009-10 and 2010-11, as per an annual regulatory filing by the US-listed Infosys with the US market regulator SEC.
But it rose sharply in 2011-12 despite a fall in the individual pay packages of some top executives, including its Executive Co-Chairman S Gopalakrishnan, CEO S D Shibulal and Chief Financial Officer V Balakrishnan.
During the year 2011-12, the top paid executive, as per Infosys' filing, was Stephen R Pratt, an Executive Council member, with a total package of about $2 million.
Among others, B G Srinivas was paid $1.19 million, while Ashok Vemuri got $1.18 million. Both of them have held various leadership positions at Infosys in the past and joined its board last year.
The total package of Shibulal was $162,990 in 2011-12, down by about $80,000 from the previous year, while that of Gopalakrishnan fell by about $85,000 to $164,543.
On the other hand, compensation paid to its independent Chairman K V Kamath rose from $ 125,600 to $205,000. Kamath took charge as Chairman of the Board in August 2011, but has served as an independent director since May 2009.
N R Narayana Murthy, who retired from the board in August last year, was paid $67,100, down from $137,500 in the previous fiscal.
Infosys said a committee determines and recommends the compensation payable to the directors, and all board-level compensation is approved by shareholders.
Remuneration of the executive directors consists of fixed component, bonus and a variable performance-linked incentive. The Compensation Committee makes a half-yearly appraisal of the performance of the employee directors.
"We have a variable compensation structure for all of our employees... Our Board aligned the compensation structure of our employee directors in line with that applicable to all of our other employees," it said.
All its executive directors are entitled to a bonus of up to 20% of their fixed salary, as also the incentives linked to the company's and individual performances.
In the last fiscal, non-executive directors were paid an aggregate $1.47 million, including reimbursement towards their attendance at board and committee meetings.
Those whose total payout increased during 2011-12 also included Deepak M Satwalekar, Omkar Goswami, Sridar Iyengar, David Boyles, Jeffrey Lehman and R Seshasayee.
