Infosys says, no discrepancy in departing CFO's compensation

Chairman Seshasayee says generous payment not made to silence Bansal

Infosys chairman R Seshasayee on Saturday emphasized that the company has nothing to hide in the 'generous’ compensation offered to the former CFO Rajiv Bansal and the separation was a “cordial, mutually agreed decision in the interest of both the individual and the organization”.

Bansal, a company veteran, left Infosys in October last year ending his over 16 years of association with the Bengaluru-headquartered company. He subsequently joined Ola, India’s largest online taxi aggregator as the Chief Financial Officer.

“The view of news reports unfortunately was that there was a very generous payment made to Rajiv, and because it was generous, it was intended to silence Rajiv and therefore there was something to be hidden by the company. I want to take this opportunity to say that there is absolutely nothing to hide and I want to assure all of you that the financial statements surpass the highest level of integrity,” said Seshasayee replying to shareholders at the company’s 35th annual general meeting.

He said the reason why Bansal was paid 'generously’ is that he had been with the company for 16 years and the company wanted to acknowledge that. Besides, as a CFO, he was also privy to a lot of priced business information and the company wanted to ensure there is no leakage of the same.

“Had there been any issue related to silencing, the agreement (with Bansal) would not have had a clause which says that he has every right to report to the regulator, whether it is the SEC or SEBI. That itself says there’s no issue of silencing,” added Seshasayee.

In its annual report for FY16, Infosys had disclosed that Bansal was paid a total annual compensation of Rs 23.02 crore including a gross salary of Rs 1.31 crore. This compares with a total annual compensation of Rs 4.72 crore he earned in the preceding year.

According to Seshasayee, the compensation offered to Bansal consists of two parts. One amounting to Rs 6.53 crore that was due to him as an employee and the other amounting to Rs 17.38 crore towards his severance package that is equal to 24 months of pay. “Out of this severance pay, it is only the first two installments that have been paid. There are eight more installments that are to be paid, running up to January 2018.”