Asia’s richest businessman Mukesh Ambani’s company has a wide presence in the petroleum, telecommunication and retail sectors. A big information has come to light about Mukesh Ambani. Mukesh Ambani has not taken any salary for the fourth consecutive year.
It is quite surprising that not only the country’s but also Asia’s richest person does not take a salary. Despite this, he is at the top of the list of the rich. According to the information, Mukesh Ambani may not take any salary but apart from salary, he chooses other options as income.
Mukesh Ambani takes ‘sitting fees’ and ‘commission’ for joining the board of directors of Reliance company. Let us tell you that ‘sitting fees’ are given to independent members of the company’s board of directors for attending meetings. Ambani (67) had limited his annual remuneration to Rs 15 crore from financial year 2008-09 to 2019-20.
From the financial year 2020-21, he opted to forego his salary due to the COVID-19 pandemic until the company and all its businesses fully return to their earning capacity. According to the company’s recent annual report, in the financial year 2023-24, he received ‘zero’ amount as salary, allowances as well as retirement benefits. Ambani has been on the board of directors of Reliance since 1977. Ambani has been the chairman since the death of his father and group founder Dhirubhai Ambani in July 2002. Mukesh Ambani was reappointed as the head of Reliance last year for a five-year term till April 2029. He has opted to take zero salary during this period.
“He shall, however, be entitled to reimbursement of expenses incurred on account of travel, meals and accommodation during business visits, including for spouse and associates,” said the special resolution seeking shareholders’ approval for his reappointment last year. “The company shall make arrangements for providing security to Ambani and his family members and the expenses incurred by the company for the same shall not be treated as perquisite,” it said. Ambani is worth $109 billion and is the 11th richest person in the world.
He and his family hold 332.27 crore shares or 50.33 per cent stake in Reliance. This stake will give him and his family a dividend income of Rs 3,322.7 crore for 2023-24, for which the company has declared a dividend of Rs 10 per share. The remuneration of Ambani’s cousins Nikhil and Hital Meswani increased to Rs 25.31 crore and Rs 25.42 crore respectively in FY 2023-24. The remuneration of both was Rs 25 crore each in FY 2022-23. This includes a commission of Rs 17.28 crore (which has remained unchanged for the last two financial years).
Executive Director P M S Prasad’s remuneration rose to Rs 17.93 crore. He received a salary of Rs 13.50 crore in 2022-23, which includes performance-linked incentives for 2021-22, which was paid in 2022-23. He received a remuneration of Rs 11.89 crore in FY 2021-22. Ambani’s wife Nita Ambani was a non-executive director on the company’s board of directors till August 28, 2023. She took Rs 2 lakh as ‘sitting fee’ and Rs 97 lakh as ‘commission’ for 2023-24. His three children – Isha, Akash and Anant – were appointed to the board of directors in October last year at zero salary. The three received Rs 4 lakh each as ‘sitting fee’ and Rs 97 lakh as ‘commission’.
