Corporate salaries: the steepest hikes, the sharpest cuts

Bajaj family – 40% hike

Bajaj Auto, India's second-largest two wheeler company, has rewarded its top brass with a 40 per cent pay hike. Rahul Bajaj, the company's chairman, got remuneration of Rs 11 crore during the financial year 2011-12, against Rs 7.8 crore the previous fiscal.

Managing director Rajiv Bajaj received a 46 per cent jump which saw his package swell to Rs 10.16 crore against Rs 6.93 crore in the year-ago period, while Madhur Bajaj, the company's vice chairman, got a 43 per cent hike at Rs 8.3 crore.

However, the overall employee benefit expenses were cut to 2.7 per cent of the total revenue at Rs 540 crore in 2011-12, this compared to an expenditure of 2.9 per cent in 2010-11.

Nitin Paranjpe, CEO, Hindustan Unilever – 23% hike

Hindustan Unilever has given a 23 per cent pay hike to chief executive Nitin Paranjpe. His remuneration for the year 2011-12 now stands at Rs 9.74 crore against Rs 7.92 crore in 2010-11. Meanwhile, Pradeep Bannerjee, executive director, supply chain management, has received a 65 per cent jump in pay at Rs 3.33 crore.

However, contrary to this trend, the company is looking to cut its expenditure, with its advertising spend, an important factor for FMCG companies, cut down to Rs 2,635 crore in 2011-12 against Rs 2,764 crore in 2010-11.

N. Chandrasekaran, MD & CEO, TCS - 50% hike

Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest software services exporter, gave Mr Chandrasekaran a 50 per cent jump in pay at Rs 8 crore in total compensation, including salary, benefits, perquisites, allowances and commissions. His compensation in 2010-11 was Rs 5.3 crore.

The company also paid Tata group chairman Ratan Tata a commission of Rs 8 crore in 2011-12. This is 233 per cent more than Rs 2.4 crore paid in 2010-11. Mr. Tata only receives a commission and nominal sitting fees for board meetings as a non-executive chairman of the company.

Indra Nooyi, CEO, PepsiCo – 23% hike

Meanwhile, in the food and beverages industry, PepsiCo chief executive Indra Nooyi saw a 6 per cent rise in her total compensation worth $17.1 million despite a not-so-great performance by the company.

The increase is largely due to a 23 per cent jump in Nooyi's base salary - her first raise in five years as CEO - and a gain in the value of her retirement benefits

(With inputs from Thomson Reuters)

Sajjan Jindal, chairman and CEO, JSW Steel – 55% hike

The steel major's chairman and managing director will be getting Rs 12 crore as salary and perks for the next five years, a rise of 55 per cent. Apart from this, he will also be receiving profit-linked commission, which will be 0.5 per cent of the net profit for that particular year.

In the last fiscal, Jindal, who is also one of the promoters of the company, was paid Rs 6.94 crore as salary and Rs 0.77 crore as perks, an increase of about 20 per cent.

(With inputs from PTI)

Sunil Mittal, CMD, Bharti Airtel – 22% cut

The chairman and managing director of India's leading telecom major saw his full-year salary package dip to about Rs 21.3 crore in 2011-12. Mittal is entitled to an annual remuneration of up to Rs 70 crore. His remuneration in the year ended March 31, 2012, fell by about 22 per cent (about Rs 6.2 crore) from close to Rs 27.5 crore in the previous year. His salary was about Rs 23.5 crore in 2009-10.

(With inputs from PTI)

Tulsi Tanti, founder-chairman, Suzlon – 73% cut

The wind turbine maker's founder-chairman saw a massive reduction of 73 per cent in his compensation on account of losses incurred by the company. He finally took home just Rs 53.76 lakh as against a compensation of Rs 2 crore, a whopping cut of Rs 1.46 crore.

Azim Premji, chairman, Wipro – 57% cut

Mr. Premji saw his remuneration falling by 57 per cent to Rs 1.9 crore in fiscal 2011-12, from Rs 2.8 crore in the preceding fiscal. In contrast, the group's IT business chief executive T.K. Kurien's pay package grew over five times to Rs 4.5 crore.

(With inputs from PTI)

Anil Ambani, chairman, Reliance Group (ADAG) - 67% cut

Mr. Ambani has taken a huge cut in his total remuneration from his four main companies in 2011-12 to about Rs 5.5 crore, lower by nearly two-thirds from the previous year. His cumulative remuneration as chairman of these four companies — Reliance Communications, Reliance Power, Reliance Infrastructure and Reliance Capital — stood at a little over Rs 17 crore in 2010-11. Mr. Ambani does not take salary from any of these companies, but gets sitting fees for attending meetings of the boards and other committees.

(With inputs from PTI)

S.D. Shibulal, CEO, Infosys – 33% cut

Pay packages of top executives of India's second largest IT services exporter, fell in 2011-12. CEO S.D. Shibulal, executive co-chairman S. Gopalakrishnan and CFO V. Balakrishnan - all took pay cuts. Shibulal's total package fell $80,000 to $162,990, while Gopalakrishnan got $164,543, an $85,000 cut.

However, the IT giant's total remuneration for its top management rose 50 per cent to $10.7 million during the last fiscal.

(With inputs from PTI)