NEW DELHI: Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani drew nil salary from his oil-to-telecom-and-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries for the fifth year in a row and dividends remain his main source of earnings.
Ambani, 68, had capped his annual remuneration at Rs 15 crore from financial year 2008-09 (April 2008 to March 2009) to 2019-20 (FY20); and since FY21, he 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 2024-25 (FY25), he got ‘nil’ as salary, allowances, and perquisites as well as retiral benefits, according to the latest annual report of the company.
However, dividend income seems to be the source of earnings for the world’s 18th richest person with a net worth of just under USD 100 billion.
He directly holds 1.61 crore shares in Reliance, earning Rs 8.85 crore in dividend income based on the Rs 5.50 per share dividend declared by the company for FY25.
The promoter group firms that he controls, own 664.5 crore shares, or 50.07 per cent, give a dividend income of Rs 3,655 crore.
The remuneration of Ambani’s cousins Nikhil and Hital Meswani slightly dipped to Rs 25 crore each as compared to Rs 25.31 crore and Rs 25.42 crore, respectively, in 2023-24. Their earnings in FY25 included Rs 17.28 crore commission (unchanged from the previous three fiscal).
Executive Directors P M S Prasad saw his remuneration rise to Rs 19.96 crore in 2024-25, from Rs 17.93 crore in the previous year. His salary included performance linked incentives for FY 2023-24 which was paid in FY25.
Ambani’s three children – Isha, Akash and Anant, who were appointed to the board in October 2023 at nil salary, got Rs 6 lakh each as sitting fee and Rs 2.27 lakh as commission.
They had in the previous year got Rs 4 lakh each as sitting fee and Rs 97 lakh as commission.
Anant, youngest of Ambani’s children, has since then been appointed an executive director on Reliance board and will from this fiscal draw between Rs 10 crore and Rs 20 crore salary.
Other non-executive directors include 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.
All independent directors got Rs 2.25 crore commission, same as last year, and a sitting fee.
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 Dhirubhai Ambani in July 2002, was in 2023 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.
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, 2022-23, and in 2023-24 and now in 2024-25.
In all these years, Ambani did not avail of any allowances, perquisites, retiral benefits, commission or stock options from Reliance for his role as the Chairman and Managing Director.
Prior to that, the Chairman and Managing Director had his salary capped at Rs 15 crore since 2008-09 in order to set a personal example of moderation in managerial compensation levels. The Rs 15-crore salary in 2019-20 was the same as in the previous 11 years.
