Corporate bosses' pay up by a fourth

Promoters, executives of 69 firms took home Rs 245 cr in 2003-04.

Indian promoters and executives took home fatter pay packages in 2003-04 thanks to a hefty growth in corporate profits, the latest annual reports show.

The study of salaries of Indian promoters and executives who earn more than Rs 1 crore per annum, shows their salaries and wages rose by 24.9 per cent in 2003-04.

Executives and promoters of 69 companies earn more than Rs 1 crore per annum. In absolute terms, the salary packages of these executives went up by almost Rs 50 crore to Rs 245 crore in 2003-04.

While their salaries and perquisites rose by 29.66 per cent, their commissions, usually a fixed share of the company's net profits, increased by 23.7 per cent.

Compared with this, managers and executives took home a salary hike of 42 per cent. But other employees got a 16 per cent salary hike. The salaries of managers increased at a much faster clip than the salaries and commissions of promoters in 2003-04.

Brijmohan Lall Munjal tops the list (of promoters and non-promoter executives), with a compensation package of Rs 11.71 crore in 2003-04, up 22.9 per cent from Rs 9.53 crore in 2002-2003. Munjal earned Rs 9.22 crore from commissions and Rs 0.62 crore by way of salary.

The Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, are second on the list, with a take-home package of Rs 11.62 crore each, almost 94 per cent of which comes from commissions. This is around 4.6 per cent lower than the last year's package of Rs 12.18 crore each. The fall is largely on account of lower commissions on profit 0.67 per cent of the profit since July 2002 from 1 per cent earlier in April-June 2002.

Among other promoters in the super-salary bracket "" those earning more than Rs 10 crore "" are three others from Hero Honda Motors: Pawan Kant Munjal stands third, with an annual package of Rs 11.53 crore, up 22.7 per cent from Rs 9.40 crore last year); Akio Kazusa fourth with Rs 11.36 crore, a 21.3 per cent growth over last year's Rs 9.37 crore; and Shinichi Nakayama fifth with a salary and commission package of Rs 10.13 crore.

Hemendra Kothari, promoter of DSP Merrill Lynch, ranks sixth on the combined list with a package of Rs 7.08 crore (up 1 per cent) in the accounting year ended December 2003.

Habib Khorakiwala, chairman and managing director and promoter of pharmaceuticals company Wockhardt, ranks seventh with a package of Rs 6.82 crore, up a hefty 86.8 per cent from Rs 3.65 crore last year. India's highest paid non-promoter executive, Vivek Paul of Wipro, enters the combined list at number eight with a package of Rs 5.70 crore, reflecting a 10.4 per cent hike over the last year's salary.

Promoters make up the rest of the remaining top 10 ranks. At number nine is Sunil Bharti Mittal of Bharti Tele-Ventures with earnings of Rs 5.67 crore, up 6.6 per cent over last year's salary, and at number 10 is Cipla promoter YK Hamid with earnings of Rs 5.34 crore.

Among non-promoter executives, Vivek Paul is followed by Davinder S Brar, former CEO and managing director of Ranbaxy Laboratories at Rs 4.05 crore (Rs 3.43 crore).

More join top league

The number of non-promoter executives earning more than Rs 1 crore per annum has almost doubled from 25 in 2002-03 to 48 in 2003-04.

Topping the list of debutants is K Miyazawa, technical director of Asahi India Safety Glass. He earned a Rs 1.87 crore pay packet in 2003-04.

The 47-year old Miyazawa holds a master degree in Engineering, and had earned Rs 0.97 crore in 2002-03. Ram Bhagat, president and executive director of Polaris Software, who missed the bus last year by a whisker ranks second in the new entrant list with a salary of Rs 1.58 crore in 2003-04. Last year, he earned Rs 0.97 crore.

Jai Menon, director, IT and technology, Bharti Tele-Ventures, earned Rs 1.44 crore in 2003-04, and was in the third place on the list.

Sunil Duggal, director, Dabur India earned Rs 1.26 crore (Rs 0.92 crore) is at the fourth place and S M Trehan, managing director, Crompton Greaves earned Rs 1.23 crore (Rs 0.68 crore) a the fifth place.