Hindustan Unilever CMD's salary drops 21% to Rs 15.36 cr in fiscal 2021

FMCG major Hindustan Unilever's Chairman and Managing Director Sanjiv Mehta's annual gross salary declined 20.9 per cent to Rs 15.36 crore in the pandemic-hit FY21, according to the company's annual report.

Mehta's remuneration included Rs 11.19 crore as salary and allowances, a bonus of Rs 2.02 crore, perquisites of Rs 1.69 crore and Rs 0.44 crore as contribution to his provident fund, as per the report.

In FY20, Mehta's total income was Rs 19.42 crore, which included a salary of Rs 12.46 crore, along with a bonus of Rs 3.31 crore, perquisites of Rs 3.20 crore and Rs 0.45 crore as contribution to PF, superannuation and consultancy fees.

It was an increase of 2.86 per cent from FY19, the annual report of Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) said.

Earlier in FY19, Mehta's gross salary was reduced to Rs 18.88 crore.

In FY21, HUL's managing director, whole-time directors and key managerial personnel together took a gross salary of Rs 36.13 crore

This includes the gross salary of CMD Mehta, CFO Srinivas Phatak, Executive Director - Legal and Corporate Affairs Dev Bajpai and Executive Director - Supply Chain Wilhelmus Uijen.

Mehta's salary was 122 times higher than the median remuneration of HUL employees in FY21.

Uijen's salary was 64.51 times the median remuneration. CFO Phatak salary was 56.59 times and Bajpai's salary 43.93 times higher than the median remuneration.

As of March 31, 2021, HUL had 8,525 permanent employees on the rolls of the company.

"The percentage increase in the median remuneration of Employees for the financial year was 2.6 per cent," said HUL.

The average increase made in the salaries of employees other than the managerial personnel in the financial year was 3.4 per cent.

"This has been a challenging year for all our employees, especially those in the frontline and factories, as they have strived hard to serve the nation by ensuring that our production and distribution of essential commodities runs smoothly," said HUL.

In FY21, a one-time special cash award was also granted to the frontline sales force and factory-based employees, it added.