Anil Ambani foregoes salary, commission for austerity
Press Trust of India / New Delhi Sep 27, 2009, 14:36 IST
Second richest Indian Anil Ambani has foregone salaries and commissions from his group companies for 2008-09 as part of austerity measures although he will still get over Rs 50 crore as sitting fees and previous-year commissions.
As Chairman of five of his group's listed companies -- Reliance Communications, Reliance Capital, Reliance Power, Reliance Infrastructure and Reliance Natural Resources -- he was paid a total of Rs 52.078 crore during the last fiscal as sitting fees for the year and as also commissions for previous year 2007-08.
The total amount paid to Anil Ambani in 2008-09 exceeds the same for any other executive by the companies which have furnished the remuneration details for their top executives during the latest fiscal.
This is despite the industrialist foregoing any salary or commissions from all these companies, and the remuneration during the year only comprises sitting fees for attending the board as a director and the payments towards commissions for the previous fiscal 2007-08.
During 2007-08, Anil's elder brother Mukesh Ambani, the Chairman and MD of Reliance Industries, was the top-paid executive in the country with total remuneration of Rs 44.02 crore. However, Mukesh Ambani's remuneration for 2008-09 is not known as RIL is yet to come out with its balance sheet for the year.
According to latest balance sheets of Anil's group companies, he was paid only Rs 7.8 lakh by the five of them for 2008-09 -- the entire amount being towards sitting fees or payments for attending meetings of boards and board committees -- if the commissions for the previous year are excluded.
Addressing shareholders at the AGM of RCom earlier this month, Anil had said that he was not taking any salary and commission, totalling around Rs 30 crore, from the company for 2008-09 due to recession.
However, he was paid Rs 52 crore towards previous-year commissions at RCOM, R-Infra and R-Cap, while no commissions were paid to him by R-Power and RNRL in 2008-09.
In comparison, Anil's total remuneration at all his group companies stood at Rs 43.43 crore during 2007-08. He had not taken any salary even during 2007-08 at four of his group companies -- RCom, R-Cap, R-Power and RNRL.
While he was paid a salary of Rs 10.95 crore at R-Infra during 2007-08, he got commissions at RCom and R-Cap and only sitting fees at R-Power and RNRL in that year.
During the latest fiscal 2008-09, Anil was paid commission of Rs 30 crore for previous year and sitting fees of Rs 2.2 lakh at RCom. Besides, he was paid Rs 11 crore as commission each at R-Infra and R-Cap for the previous year.
As sitting fees, Anil got Rs 2.2 lakh at RCom, Rs 1 lakh at R-Power, Rs 80,000 at R-Cap, Rs 2.6 lakh at RNRL and Rs 1.2 lakh at R-Infra.
It is commendable that a "crorepati" volentarily foregoes crores of rupees
for the benifit of his companies. It is sure,none of other business men
will muster such courrege, rather lot of criticism will follw or they will
just ignnore it.Thanks to media, who will alsodo the same.
Content Guide
Second richest Indian Anil Ambani has foregone salaries and commissions from his group companies for 2008-09 as part of austerity measures although he will still get over Rs 50 crore as sitting fees and previous-year commissions.
