Wipro chief Premji's salary drops 63% to $1,21,853 in FY17

Wipro Chairman Azim Premji's pay package saw a huge 63 per cent fall at USD 1,21,853 (about Rs 79 lakh) last fiscal, with no commission being paid during the year.

The IT czar had drawn a larger compensation of USD 3,27,993 (about Rs 2.17 crore) in the previous fiscal.

Premji's package included USD 66,464 in salary and allowances and USD 41,742 (others) and USD 13,647 in long-term compensation (deferred benefit - company's contribution to the Provident Fund and Pension Fund), totalling to USD 121,853 for the year 2016-17, as per documents with the US SEC.

"Azim H Premji is entitled to a commission at the rate of 0.5 per cent on incremental net profits of Wipro for the fiscal 2017 over the previous year... For the year ended March 31, 2017, commission paid to

Azim H Premji is INR Nil," the document said.

It added that all other executives received variable pay under a quarterly performance linked scheme, based on key parameters of individual or combined performance of the business unit, division or segment or the company as a whole.

In 2015-16, Premji had received a commission of USD 1,39,634.

There has been a decline in compensation for key executives across the industry and it is reflective of the slow pace of growth for players.

Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka, for example, saw his pay package coming down by 67 per cent to Rs 16.01 crore in 2016- 17 from Rs 48.73 crore in the previous year.

Wipro saw its net income for the full year decline 4.7 per cent over the previous fiscal. For the fourth quarter, its IT services revenue declined marginally over the October- December quarter.

However, Wipro CEO Abidali Neemuchwala's pay package saw 16 per cent increase to USD 2.09 million during FY 2016-17, which included USD 8,00,000 in salary, USD 1,50,244 in commission, USD 1.13 million (others) and USD 9,014 (deferred benefits). Neemuchwala was elevated as the CEO on February 1, 2016 from the position of COO.

The high compensation for leaders in the tech sector also come under spotlight after Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy had questioned pay hikes for senior executives at the Bengaluru-based firm.

Rishad Premji, chief strategy officer and Wipro board member, took home a salary of USD 2,60,015 in 2016-17 compared to USD 325,462 in the previous fiscal, a drop of 20 per cent.