ITC CMD Sanjiv Puri’s salary jumps 47% in FY21

ITC Chairman Sanjiv Puri.

The pay package of ITC Chairman and Managing Director Sanjiv Puri saw a jump of 47 percent to Rs 11.47 crore to Rs 11.95 crore in the financial year 2021, the company reported in its annual report. In FY20, Puri was paid a total remuneration of Rs 7.83 crore by the company.

ITC had changed the remuneration structure of its key managerial structure in 2019 after its largest shareholder British American Tobacco turned down the proposal to issue stock options to top executives. Puri’s salary for FY20 only accounted for a few months of this change as it was approved by the board in September, 2019. The effect of restructuring is reflected in his current salary.

According to the report, ITC paid Rs 2.64 crore consolidated salary and performance bonus and long-term incentives or commission and other perquisites of Rs 6.98 crore to Puri in FY21.

The CMD’s total pay was 222 times higher than the median salary of ITC employees, according to the annual report. The jump in his salary was also considerably higher than the hike given to the employees of the company. ITC employees were given a median pay hike of 16 percent during the year.
“Remuneration of key managerial personnel (KMP) increased by 51 percent due to impact of revision in remuneration during the year and increase in the number of KMPs,” the report said.

The salaries of top FMCG executives have witnessed a mixed trend this year. HUL slashed the salary of its chairman and managing director Sanjiv Mehta by 21 percent to Rs 15.4 crore in FY21 from Rs 19.42 crore in FY20. Nestle managing director Suresh Narayanan’s remuneration climbed 6.3 percent to Rs 17.19 crore in the calendar year 2020 from Rs 16.17 crore in 2019. Nestle follows the January-December financial year.

Tata Consumer Products CEO Sunil D’Souza, who joined the company in April last year, was paid Rs 10.49 crore in annual remuneration compared with Rs 4.3 crore paid to his predecessor Ajoy Misra in FY20.

Mehta was the highest-paid CEO in the FMCG sector last year. It remains to be seen who will take that spot this year, with Britannia, Dabur, and Marico yet to release their annual reports.