Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani draws nil salary for fourth straight year in FY24, sticks to COVID-year protocol

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani drew nil salary from his oil-to-telecom-and-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries for the fourth straight year in 2023-24 (FY24) while his children earned a sitting fee and a commission for being on the board of India's most valuable company. Ambani, 67, capped his annual remuneration at ₹15 crore from financial year 2008-09 (April 2008 to March 2009) to 2019-20 (FY20).

Since FY21, the Asia's richest man opted to forego his salary, due to COVID-19 pandemic, until the company and all its businesses were fully back to their earnings potential. In 2023-24, he got 'nil' as salary, allowances, and perquisites as well as retiral benefits, according to the latest annual report of the company.

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Mukesh Ambani's salary: Key Metrics

Ambani had in June 2020 voluntarily decided to forego his salary for the year 2020-21, in light of the COVID-19 outbreak in India, which exacted a huge toll on the societal, economic and industrial health of the nation. He continued to forgo his salary in 2021-22 and 2022-23 and now in 2023-24.

In the last three years, Ambani did not avail of any allowances, perquisites, retiral benefits, commission or stock options from Reliance Industries for his role as the Chairman and Managing Director.

Prior to that, he had his salary capped at ₹15 crore since 2008-09 in order to set an example of moderation in managerial compensation levels. The ₹15-crore salary in 2019-20 was the same as in the previous 11 years.

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Ambani, who has been on the board of Reliance since 1977 and was elevated as chairman of the company after the death of his father and group patriarch Dhiburhai Ambani in July 2002, was just last year re-appointed as the head of Reliance for another five-year term till April 2029 - a period during which he opted to draw nil salary.

"He shall, however, be entitled to reimbursement of expenses incurred for travelling, boarding and lodging including for spouse and attendant(s) during business trips and provision of car(s) for use on company's business and communication expenses at residence shall be reimbursed at actuals and not considered as perquisites," the special resolution seeking shareholder nod for his re-appointment had said last year. "The company shall arrange to provide security to Ambani and his family members and the expenses borne by the company for the same shall not be considered as perquisites,'' it added.

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Salary metrics of Reliance Industries' top executives

With a net worth of $109 billion, Ambani is the 11th richest person in the world. He and his family own 332.27 crore shares or 50.33 per cent stake in Reliance. This stake would have earned him and his family ₹3,322.7 crore in dividend income for 2023-24 for which the company had declared a ₹10 per share dividend.

The remuneration of Ambani's cousins Nikhil and Hital Meswani rose to ₹25.31 crore and ₹25.42 crore respectively in 2023-24 from ₹25 crore each in FY23. This included ₹17.28 crore commission (unchanged from the previous two fiscal years).

Executive Directors P M S Prasad saw his remuneration rise to ₹17.93 crore. He drew ₹13.50 crore in 2022-23 including performance linked incentives for 2021-22 which was paid in 2022-23. In 2021-22, he drew ₹11.89 crore.

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Ambani's wife Nita, who was a non-executive director on the company's board till August 28, 2023, earned ₹2 lakh as a sitting fee and another ₹97 lakh commission for 2023-24. His three children - Isha, Akash and Anant, who were appointed to the board in October last year at nil salary, got ₹4 lakh each as sitting fee and ₹97 lakh as commission.

Other non-executive directors include Adil Zainulbhai, Raminder Singh Gujral, Shumeet Banerji, former SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya, former CVC K V Chowdary, veteran banker K V Kamath and Saudi sovereign wealth fund nominee Yasir Othman H Al Rumayyan. While all independent directors got ₹2.25 crore commission (up from ₹2 crore in 2022-23) and sitting fee.

Reliance Industries Q1 Results

Reliance Industries reported a four per cent year-on-year (YoY) decline in June quarter (Q1FY25) consolidated net profit even as its revenue moved up 11.5 per cent YoY. The consolidated EBITDA for the quarter under review moved up with strong contributions from consumer and upstream businesses, largely offsetting the weak performance of O2C segments.

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“Consolidated EBITDA for the quarter improved from a year ago with strong contribution from Consumer and Upstream businesses offsetting weak O2C operating environment," said Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries. The company's consolidated revenue rose 11.5 per cent YoY to ₹2,57,823 crore from ₹2,31,132 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.