None of the corner-office executives in India took home 10-digits remuneration in FY23 as muted growth in bottom-line and uncertain macro environment prompted many companies to cut down their overall employee costs.
According to Bloomberg data, the combined net profit of Nifty500 companies rose just 8.5 percent to about Rs 11 lakh crore in FY23. That compares with over 50 percent increase clocked in FY22.
Among the top 500 companies whose FY23 annual reports are available as of Wednesday, Hero MotoCorp’s Pawan Munjal took the highest remuneration in FY23.
While the remuneration of Pawan Munjal increased by 18 percent to Rs 99.55 crore in the FY23, C Vijayakumar of HCL Technologies, who had drawn heaviest paycheck last year saw his compensation falling as much as 77 percent to Rs 28.4 crore. However. it’s to be noted that, a long-term incentive of $12.5 million from an HCL Tech subsidiary had taken Vijayakumar’s salary to over Rs 100 crore in FY22. Similarly, a profit-linked commission of Rs 121. 7 crore in FY22 had taken Sajjan Jindal’ salary to Rs 134.80 crore.
| Highest paid MD&CEO | ||
| Company | FY23 (Rs Cr)* | Name |
| Hero MotoCorp | 99.55 | Pawan Munjal |
| Wipro | 82.41 | Thierry Delaporte |
| Divi's Laboratories | 70.49 | Murali K Divi |
| Persistent Systems | 61.66 | Sandeep Kalra |
| Mphasis | 59.17 | Nitin Rakesh |
While Wipro comes second with Rs 82.4 crore salary from the Nifty pack, Divi's Laboratories occupies third position with Rs 70.5 crore remuneration. Other companies from outside the Nifty50 pack with higher CEO remunerations include, Persistent Systems, Mphasis , Amara Raja Batteries, Crompton Greaves Consumer and many others.
| Company | FY22 (Rs Crore)* | Name |
| JSW Steel | 134.80 | Sajjan Jindal |
| HCL Technologies | 124.94 | C. Vijayakumar |
| Divi's Laboratories | 110.41 | Murali K Divi |
| Hero MotoCorp | 84.35 | Pawan Munjal |
| Wipro | 79.81 | Thierry Delaporte |
Interestingly, when the total remuneration of heads at larger IT companies like HCL Tech, Infosys, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra dropped significantly in FY23, the remunerations at mid-tier IT companies like Birlasoft, Sonata Software increased over two-fold in FY23. Further, the CEO of Persistent Systems -- Sandeep Kalra saw his salary rising by 32 percent to Rs 61.7 crore in FY23.
The reasons behind steep fall in remuneration is the prevailing macro-economic situation and slower profit growth at promoter led companies. Even bosses at two Nifty companies –Reliance Industries and Kotak Mahindra Bank have decided to forgo their salaries for another year in FY23.,
