This is how much RBI governor and his deputies earn

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das’ monthly remuneration stood at Rs 2.5 lakh during the previous financial year, same as former governor Urjit Patel earned per month during his tenure, the central bank said in a response to a Right to Information (RTI) query filed by Moneycontrol.

As per the reply, the four deputy governors at the RBI including MD Patra, M Rajeshwar Rao, MK Jain, T Rabi Sankar drew Rs 2.25 lakh rupees per month each, as on March end.

RBI Executive Directors including Anil Kumar Sharma, Shirish Chandra Murmu, Om Prakash Mall and Mridul Kumar Saggar, among others earned Rs 2.16 lakh rupees in monthly basic salary each, as of FY22 end, the RTI response showed.

The salary of top management at India’s central bank is in-line with what State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Dinesh Khara’s monthly basic pay, or that of Bank of Baroda Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD & CEO) Sanjiv Chadha.

For FY22, Chadha earned Rs 38.19 lakh as annual salary and Rs 2,27,191 in perquisites, while Khara earned Rs 27 lakh in basic pay and Rs 742,500 as dearness allowance.

On a consolidated basis, the salary of the top 5 PSU public sector bank leaders in FY22, excluding Punjab National Bank (PNB), ranged between Rs 34 lakh and Rs 40 lakh.

While Rs 34 lakh is a decent pay package for a government-run entity, it pales in comparison with the compensation earned by private-bankers. For instance, HDFC Managing Director and CEO Keki Mistry took home a gross package of Rs 19 crore in the financial year 2022.

Further, while the salary of heads of PSU banks and RBI has remained static since 2016, India's consumer price inflation (CPI) soared from 4.9 percent in 2016 to 7.01 percent in June.

Overall, the salaries of the top five private bank leaders, excluding ICICI Bank, ranged between 2.3 crore to Rs 7.1 crore per annum, including perks, in FY21, as per banks’ annual reports.

To a query on why there were no equity stock options (ESOP) or other better performance linked incentive received by public sector bank heads during the previous fiscal, the RBI said sought information was not available with the regulator.

When asked why the annual salary of PSU bank heads is so low in comparison with private banks, the RBI said: “What is being sought is an opinion and not “information” as defined under section 2(f) of the RTI Act, 2005.”

Further, the RBI also does not have information on what are the annual targets for PSU bank heads and what is their performance judged on, as per the RTI response.