Ambani draws no salary for sixth year in row

New Delhi: Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani drew nil salary from his oil-to-telecom-and-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries for the sixth year in a row and dividends remain his main source of earnings.

Ambani, 69, had capped his annual remuneration at Rs 15 crore from financial year 2008-09 (April 2008 to March 2009) to 2019-20 (FY20); and since FY21, he opted to forego his salary, due to COVID-19 pandemic, until the company and all its businesses were fully back to their earnings potential.

In 2025-26 (FY26), he got 'nil' as salary, allowances, and perquisites as well as retiral benefits, according to the latest annual report of the company.

This voluntary foregoing of remuneration began in June 2020, when Ambani decided to give up his entire pay in light of the COVID-19 pandemic's devastating impact on the nation's social, economic, and industrial health.

He continued this decision - entirely voluntarily - in FY 2021-22, FY 2022-23, FY 2023-24, FY 2024-25, and now FY 2025-26.

This is a striking example in today's global corporate landscape, where excessive executive compensation is a major shareholder and governance concern. By contrast, in FY 2025-26, Reliance reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 95,754 crore - the highest ever - and a market capitalisation of Rs 18,19,103 crore (USD 191.8 billion).

However, dividend income seems to be the source of earnings for the world's 18th richest person with a net worth of just under USD 100 billion.

He directly holds 1.61 crore shares in Reliance, earning Rs 9.66 crore in dividend income based on the Rs 6 per share dividend declared by the company for FY25.

The promoter group firms that he controls, own 664.5 crore shares, or 50.07 per cent, give a dividend income of Rs 3,987 crore.

The remuneration of Ambani's cousins Nikhil and Hital Meswani remained unchanged at Rs 25 crore each. This was made up of Rs 10 crore in salary, allowances and perquisites, Rs 44 lakh in retiral benefits and Rs 14.56 crore as commission on profit.

Executive Directors P M S Prasad saw his remuneration rise to Rs 20.58 crore in FY26 from Rs 19.96 crore in 2024-25.

Ambani's three children - Isha, Akash and Anant, who were appointed to the board in October 2023 at nil salary, just got a sitting fee and a commission on profit. Twins Akash and Isha got Rs 5 lakh each as sitting fee and a commission of Rs 2.5 crore.

Anant, the youngest of Ambani's children, was last year appointed as an executive director on Reliance board and in FY26 drew a salary of Rs 12.17 crore (including Rs 2.29 crore commission).

Other non-executive directors include Raminder Singh Gujral, Shumeet Banerji, former SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya, former CVC K V Chowdary, veteran banker K V Kamath and Saudi sovereign wealth fund nominee Yasir Othman H Al Rumayyan.

All independent directors got Rs 2.5 crore commission, up from Rs 2.25 crore of last year, and a sitting fee.

Ambani, who has been on the board of Reliance since 1977 and was elevated as chairman of the company after the death of his father and group patriarch Dhirubhai Ambani in July 2002, was in 2023 re-appointed as the head of Reliance for another five-year term till April 2029 - a period during which he opted to draw nil salary.

Since forgoing salary in June 2020, Ambani has not availed of any allowances, perquisites, retiral benefits, commission or stock options from Reliance for his role as the Chairman and Managing Director.

Prior to that, the Chairman and Managing Director had his salary capped at Rs 15 crore since 2008-09 in order to set a personal example of moderation in managerial compensation levels. The Rs 15-crore salary in 2019-20 was the same as in the previous 11 years.