Slowdown? Mega bucks for corp bigwigs

On May 28,the board of directors of Bharat Forge approved a compensation of Rs 5.7 crore for its chairman and managing director,B N Kalyani,taking his total remuneration for 2011-12 to Rs 9.9 crore. This includes salary and perquisites of Rs 3.6 crore as well as contribution towards provident fund.

In the year 2010-11,Kalyani was paid Rs 7.3 crore,including salary and perquisites of Rs 3.2 crore and commission of Rs 3.5 crore.

A Bharat Forge spokesperson said,“The commission payable to the directors finds a mention in the annual report as well and was approved by the board of directors in a meeting held in May.”

While Kalayni’s remuneration hike was nearly 33 per cent,the salary of Zensar vice-chairman and managing director,Dr Ganesh Natrajan,increased by nearly 100 per cent over the previous year. The hike in remuneration for chairman of Bajaj Auto,Rahul Bajaj,was around 40 per cent.

Natrajan,besides being entitled to company stocks,drew a remuneration of Rs 1.9 crore in the financial year 2011-12 as compared to Rs 0.9 crore in 2010-11.

As per Bajaj Auto’s annual report,during 2010-11,Bajaj drew salary and allowances of Rs 3.3 crore and the commission of Rs 4.5 crore,taking his total remuneration to Rs 7.8 crore,but in 2011-12 he drew a remuneration of over Rs 11 crore,including compensation of Rs 6.7 crore and salary and perquisites of Rs 4.3 crore. Bajaj’s son and the company managing director,Rajiv Bajaj,drew a salary of 2.9 crore and compensation of Rs 3.9 crore in 2010-11. In 2011-12,Rajiv drew a remuneration of Rs 10.1 crore.

Rahul Bajaj said his remuneration was not as high as that of the top 50 company bosses in India. “The emoluments also include provident fund,” he said.

During 2011-12,the managing director of Thermax,M S Unnikrishnan,drew a salary of Rs 1.69 crore and commission of Rs 55 lakh. In the previous year,his total remuneration drawn was Rs 1.9 crore including a salary of Rs 1.4 crore. The compensation of Rs 55 lakh for the last financial year was approved in the annual general meeting last month. Unnikrishnan said “some of the company managing directors were drawing much higher emoluments”.

Chairman of Kirloskar Oil Engines,Atul C Kirloskar,drew Rs 3.6 crore including commission,basic salary and allowances during 2010-11. In 2011-12,his remuneration went up to Rs 4.2 crore,including salary and commission.

Dr Anand Deshpande,chairman and managing director of Persistent Systems,drew a salary and perquisites amounting to Rs 90 lakh in 2010-11. In 2011-12,this increased to Rs 1 crore.