Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran received a total remuneration worth ₹113 crore, which includes salary and other compensation worth ₹13 crore and commission worth ₹100 crore, according to the company’s annual report 2022-23.
This makes Chandra one of the highest paid executives in the country. During 2021-22, 60-year-old Chandrasekaran (also known as Chandra) received total remuneration worth ₹109 crore.
The second highest compensation went to Tata Sons executive director Saurabh Agrawal, who earned ₹5.82 crore in salary and ₹22 crore in compensation. Both of them held 'nil' number of shares in the company.
Other Tata Sons directors, Vijay Singh, Ajay Piramal, Harish Manwani, Leo Puri, Ralf Speth, and Bhaskar Bhat, received a commission worth ₹2.80 crore each for FY23. The total commission payout to independent director Anita Marangoly stood at ₹2.10 crore.
Tata Sons' total revenue from operations for the year ending March 31, 2023, stood at ₹4,03,979.63 crore, up from ₹3,02,457.83 crore in the year ending March 31, 2022. Total profit, including profit attributable to the owner of the company and non-controlling interest, was recorded at ₹28,211.04 crore for the said year, down from ₹40,437.75 crore in the previous year.
In May this year, Chandrasekaran was also conferred France's highest civilian award, Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur, for his efforts to boost India-France trade relations. The award was bestowed by French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna, who gave the award on behalf of French President Emmanuel Macron.
As reported by Fortune India magazine in May 2023, under Chandra, the Tata group is transitioning into a new avatar. Its auto unit Tata Motors is transitioning rapidly from vehicles made with internal combustion engines to electric vehicles only; Tata Power from thermal power to renewables; Tata Steel to green steel; Titan from watch & jewellery maker to a lifestyle firm; Tata Chemicals from basic chemistry to specialty chemicals; Tata Consumer Products from tea and salt to full-scale FMCG; Indian Hotels from owned-assets to leased properties; Tata Digital to SuperApp; and last but not the least Tata Defence from defence transportation to aviation engineering.
Notably, chairman of another big conglomerate Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani had capped his annual remuneration at ₹15 crore, from FY2008-09 to FY2019-20. Since FY2020-21, he opted to forego his salary, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He has also not been paid any salary and profit-based commission since FY2020-21, and has sought zero pay package for the proposed term from April 19, 2024, till April 18, 2029.
India's biggest private lender, HDFC Bank paid ₹10.57 crore to its CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan in the financial year 2022-23, 62.4% higher than ₹6.51 crore paid to him in FY22. The basic salary of Jagdishan stood at ₹2.8 crore, while allowances and perquisites were ₹3.31 crore. Provident fund, superannuation, performance bonus, and number of stock options were ₹4.4 crore.
