Pay of top Indian CEOs averages Rs10 cr; a tenth of US peers’ Rs100 cr

The average pay of chief executives of India's top listed companies has risen to Rs10 crore a year, but still remains less than a tenth of the over Rs100 crore median remuneration earned by their counterparts in the US.

The top executives of the 30 companies that make up the Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex, were paid an average annual remuneration of Rs9.9 crore in the last financial year of 2013-14, up from about Rs8.5 crore in the previous year.

In comparison, the average CEO pay for the companies forming part of the American 30-share benchmark index DJIA (Dow Jones Industrial Average) stood at $17.5 million (Rs105 crore) during the last year, according to a PTI report.

The corresponding figures for the UK and Germany stood at about Rs60 crore and Rs50 crore respectively in 2013.

The average CEO pay for the Sensex companies would come down even further if the figures for the six public sector undertakings on the sensex are taken into account, as their annual packages are considerably lower under the government's salary regulations.

The average figure of Rs10.06 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 do not include the value of stocks owned by these persons, 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 are Larsen & Toubro, Cipla, Bharti Airtel, Maruti Suzuki, Sun Pharmaceuticals and Hindalco.

Among the 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 Rs15 crore.

Pay packages 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 Hindustan Unilever, where Sanjiv Mehta took over the leadership baton from Nitin Paranjpe in October 2013. Others with lower CEO pay during 2013-14 were Sesa Sterlite, Tata Steel and Infosys, whose outgoing CEO S D Shibulal was among the lowest paid in Sensex at just about Rs16 lakh (down from Rs65 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 Rs37.9 crore in 2013-14, up from Rs32.8 crore in the previous fiscal. This included nearly Rs3.5 crore as salary and Rs29.8 crore as commission, among other heads.

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 Rs850 crore) in 2013.