Wipro chairman Rishad Premji takes 50 percent paycut this year

Rishad Premji's pay for the year Premji’s pay for the year was down to $950k from last year’s $1.8 million.

Wipro chairman Rishad Premji took an almost 50 percent paycut for financial year 2023, according to a recent filing made to the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US.

Rishad Premji received a total compensation of $951,353 for the financial year ending March 2023, which is almost half the compensation he received in the last fiscal year ($1,819,022). According to the Form 20-F submitted by Wipro, Premji received $861,620 as salary and allowances, $74,343 in long-term compensation benefits, and $15,390 in other incomes.

Besides his compensation, Premji also receives a commission at the rate of 0.35% on incremental consolidated net profits. Since incremental consolidated net profits for the fiscal year 2023 were negative, he did not receive this commission this year. Neither were there any stock options granted to him this year.

Wipro on April 27 reported a 0.4 percent year-on-year decline in its consolidated net profit for the quarter ended March 2023 (Q4FY23) at Rs 3,075 crore, as against Rs 3,087 crore a year ago.

This is not the first time that the executive chairman of Wipro has taken a compensation cut – he also slashed his pay by 31 percent during the pandemic, CNBC reported. For the year 2019-20, his remuneration was $0.68 million, as against $0.98 million in the previous year.

Rishad Premji, 46, is the son of Wipro head Azim Premji. He took over as chairman of Wipro in 2019 and his five-year term is set to conclude on July 30, 2024.

Wipro’s Chief Financial Officer Jatin Pravinchandra Dalal also saw a reduction in remuneration this year. He received $1.1 million (Rs 8.9 crore) in FY2023, as opposed to $1.6 million (Rs 12.1 crore) in the previous year.

However, Wipro chief executive officer Thierry Delaporte remained one of the highest-paid CEOs despite a minor reduction in salary. His total compensation this year was $10 million (Rs 82.41 crore) against $10.52 million (Rs 79.81 crore) in the year 2022.