Tata Steel global CEO and group ED get remuneration raise for FY21

Average percentage decline in employees' salary 2.6% due to pandemic

Tata Steel, the country’s oldest steel producer, handed a raise in terms of managerial remuneration to its senior staffers for the previous fiscal year. TV Narendran, global CEO and managing director of Tata Steel, received a 38 per cent hike in terms of commision and bonus, while Koushik Chatterjee, group executive director (finance & corporate), got a 23 per cent raise.
 
However, Chairman N Chandrasekaran abstained from receiving the commission as part of a policy, according to the annual report for FY21.
 
On the other hand, given the adverse impact of Covid-19 on the economy, employees of Tata Steel were handed over an average of 2.58 per cent pay cut during the FY21. The average percentage decrease in the salary of key managerial personnel of Tata Steel was 6.01 per cent, the report said. As on March 31, 2021, the number of permanent employees on the rolls of Tata Steel was 31,189.
 
The annual report explained that the raise in managerial remuneration in FY21 was largely due to the commission/bonus approved by the Board of Directors for the chief executive officer (CEO), managing director and executive director on May 5, 2021 for the 2020-21 financial year. Both TV Narendran and Koushik Chatterjee head the top-10 employees’ list in terms of remuneration drawn in the FY21 fiscal, with the former drawing an annual remuneration of Rs 11.08 crore and the latter Rs 10.1 crore.

 
The increase in managerial remuneration for FY21 is not comparable with FY20 as there was no increase last year with Covid-19 taking centrestage, said the report. The directors had then decided to moderate the executive remuneration for the 2019-20 financial year to express solidarity and conserve resources. During the period, the company showed a strong performance. The consolidated profit after tax for Tata Steel Group stood at Rs 8,190 crore in FY21, significantly above Rs 1,172 crore reported a year ago. The increase was mainly due to improvement in the underlying business performance, resulting in a robust level of earnings for the year, the annual report stated.
 
Disciplined capital allocation and tight working capital management led to Tata Steel’s highest-ever free cash flow after capex at Rs 23,748 crore for FY21, said the report. “We aim to strike a balance between capex  and debt repayment and are also expediting the simplification process of the Tata Steel Group,” it said.
 
 The company said it planned to create four major business clusters — long products, downstream, mining, utilities and infrastructure services.