Don't dip into cos fortune for pay packets: FICCI to corporates

Advocating that salaries should be left to their discretion, FICCI's new President Rajan Mittal today, however, asked corporate not to dip into the 'fortune' of companies to fill executives' pay packets.

Corporate should be conscious that by having a fat pay packet while leading a company, they would be doing "disservice to the whole corporate world and also to the shareholder," he said when asked about Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khrushid's view that there should be no "vulgar" display of salaries.

He, however, emphasised that corporate by and large behave responsibly and "we should not broad brush the issue and say that the entire corporate world is out of sync. That is not the issue".

Last year, executives' pay had become a point of debate when Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia joined Corporate Affairs Minister Khurshid in voicing concern against indecent salaries to the top brass of the industry.

"Indecent CEO salaries have become a global cause of worry," Ahluwalia had said then.

Aiming to set an example of moderation in pay, Mukesh Ambani took a more than two-thirds cut in pay in 2008-09, while Anil Ambani did not take any salary at all.

"If somebody is sitting at the helm of the affairs and creating wealth for the shareholders and stakeholders, I think that should be encouraged, should be honoured and respected," Mittal added.

When asked about his views on the proposed Equal Opportunity Bill and religious profiling of the employees, Mittal in a way opposed the move and said that everything should be based on merit.

"If you want to make this nation a meritorious nation, you will have to have merit to play the game. You can't have on one side, nation of the meritorious and then you say I want to do with these issues...They (private sector) needs to work with good people," he added.

"I don't think so any corporate looks about profiling of any kind," Mittal said.