Bharti Airtel clarified that media reports on its Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal’s salary being raised to Rs 70 crore per year this year are inaccurate.
Media reports had reported that his salary may go up from the current Rs 27.5 crore per year, giving the impression of an immediate hike.
Bharti said the there will be no increment in Mittal’s salary this year as the “Human Resource Committee,” which met on Friday, decided for no increment in the remuneration for Sunil Bharti Mittal for the current year.
“The proposal to revise the remuneration of its Chairman and Managing Director, Sunil Bharti Mittal up to a maximum of Rs 70 crores as proposed in the company’s 2011 AGM notice, is an enabling provision for the next five years, and should be seen in that light,” it said.
An ‘enabling provision’ such as for issuing new shares, is an authorization by the owners (share-holders) of the company to its management (board of directors) to carry out the act if and when they feel the need in the future.
The decision had been highlighted across the media and if implemented immediately, would have made Sunil Mittal one of the, if not the, most highly paid individual in India.
High executive pay is a sensitive topic in a country with the largest number of poor people in the World.