Find out how much do CEOs in top Indian companies earn
The pay scale of Indian CEOs has increased to Rs 10 crore a year
New Delhi: The average CEO pay at India's top listed companies has risen to Rs 10 crore a year. However, it still remains less than one-tenth of Rs 100 crore median remuneration paid to their peers in the US. The top executives of the country's biggest blue-chip companies, forming part of the benchmark index Sensex, were paid an average remuneration of Rs 9.9 crore in the latest fiscal 2013-14- up from about Rs 8.5 crore in the previous year.
In comparison, the average CEO pay for the companies forming part of the US stock market's index DJIA (Dow Jones Industrial Average) stood at $17.5 million (Rs 105 crore) during the last year.
The corresponding figures for the UK and Germany stood at about Rs 60 crore and Rs 50 crore, respectively, in 2013 -- which are also significantly higher than the Indian average.
The average figure of Rs 10.06 crore for the fiscal year 2013-14 has been derived through an analysis of the latest pay disclosures so far made by the private sector Sensex companies in their latest annual reports. However, the figures does not include the value of stocks owned by these CEOs, as also the other accrued benefits such as dividend payouts that may arise from share ownerships.
There are 24 private sector companies in the 30-share index, but six of them are yet to make public their 2013-14 annual reports. These six companies are Larsen and Toubro, Cipla, Bharti Airtel, Maruti, Sun Pharma and Hindalco. Among these 18 Sensex companies taken into account, only four showed a decline in their CEO compensation for the latest fiscal, while the annual pay remained unchanged in one case - Reliance Industries' Mukesh Ambani, at Rs 15 crore.
The pay package increased at TCS, Bajaj Auto, Axis Bank, ITC, Dr Reddy's, Hero Motocorp, HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Tata Power, Wipro, M&M and Tata Motors.
Those recording a decline in their annual CEO pay package included HUL, where Sanjiv Mehta took over the leadership baton from Nitin Paranjpe during middle of the fiscal in October 2013. Others with lower CEO pay during 2013-14 were Sesa Sterlite, Tata Steel and Infosys, whose CEO S D Shibulal was among the lowest paid in Sensex-club at just about Rs. 16 lakh (down from Rs. 65 lakh in previous fiscal).
Among those with higher pay packages, Hero Motocorp's managing director and CEO Pawan Munjal got a total pay package of Rs. 37.9 crore in 2013-14, up from Rs. 32.8 crore in the previous fiscal. This included nearly Rs. 3.5 crore as salary and Rs. 29.8 crore as commission, among others.In the US, technology major Oracle Corp's Larry Ellison was the top-paid among blue-chip American firms with a pay package of $78.4 million (over Rs. 470 crore), while Houston-based Cheniere Energy's CEO Charif Souki topped the overall chart with remuneration of $142 million (over Rs. 850 crore) in 2013.