Mukesh Ambani keeps salary capped at Rs 150 million for 10th year in a row

Richest Indian Mukesh Ambani has kept his annual salary from company Reliance Industries capped at Rs 150 million for the tenth year on the trot.

Ambani has kept salary, perquisites and allowances and commission together at Rs 150 million since 2008-09, forgoing almost Rs 240 million per annum.

This is at a time when remunerations of all whole-time directors of the company, including cousins Nikhil and Hital Meswani, saw handsome raise in the fiscal year ended on March 31, 2018.

"Compensation of Mukesh D Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, has been set at Rs 150 million, reflecting his desire to continue to set a personal example for moderation in managerial compensation levels," RIL said in its latest annual report.

His remuneration for 2017-18 included Rs 40.49 million as salary and allowances, which is marginally higher than Rs 41.6 million he got in previous 2016-17 fiscal. Commission has however been unchanged at Rs 95.3 million while perquisites have declined to Rs 2.7 million from Rs 6 million. Retirement benefits were Rs 7.1 millon.

Ambani voluntarily capped his compensation at Rs 150 million in October 2009 amid a debate over right-sizing of CEO salaries.

The salary cap continued even as all other executive directors saw their remunerations go up.

Ambani's cousins Nikhil R Meswani and Hital R Meswani saw their compensation rise to Rs 199.9 million each. They had earned Rs 165.8 million each in 2016-17. In 2015-16, Nikhil had got Rs 144.2 million while Hital took home Rs 144.1 million. In 2014-15, they had got Rs 120.3 million each.

Also, one of his key executives, Executive Director P M S Prasad saw his remuneration go up to Rs 80.99 million from Rs 78.7 million in 2016-17, Rs 72.3 million in 2015-16 and Rs 60.3 million in 2014-15.

Refinery chief Pawan Kumar Kapil saw his compensation rise to Rs 30.47 million. In the previous fiscal, his remuneration had fallen to Rs 25.4 million, from Rs 29.4 million in 2015-16. He had earned Rs 24.10 million in 2014-15.

RIL's non-executive directors, including Nita Ambani, also got Rs 10.5 million each as commission, besides sitting fees. The commission was Rs 10.30 million in the previous year.

Ambani's wife Nita Ambani, a non-executive director on the company's board, earned Rs 600,000 sitting fee.

Apart from Ambani, the RIL board has Meswani brothers, Prasad and Kapil as wholetime directors.

Besides Nita Ambani, other non-executive directors include Mansingh L Bhakta, Yogendra P Trivedi, D V Kapur, Ashok Misra, Dipak C Jain, Raghunath A Mashelkar, Adil Zainulbhai, Raminder Singh Gujral and Shumeet Banerji.