Meet Murali Divi, a top paid CEO who draws Rs 59 Crore salary

Hyderabad: Murali Divi, the CMD of Divi’s Laboratories has topped the list of CEOs in terms of remuneration in the domestic pharma industry for the financial year 2018-19. According to the Hyderabad-based drug major’s annual report, Mr Murali’s total pay packet including commission and other perks for FY-19 was Rs 58.8 crore, 46.3 per cent higher than his total remuneration of Rs 40.20 crore in 2017-18. On the other hand, the average salary hike for Divi’s employees was 3.96 per cent.

The annual report further reveals that the company’s executive director N.V. Ramana got Rs 30 crore and Kiran S. Divi the company’s full-time director pocketed Rs 20 crore as remuneration for 2018-19 fiscal.

The other top paid CEOs in the Indian pharma industry are N. Govindarajan MD at Aurobindo Pharma (Rs 14.6 crore), G.V Prasad CMD at Dr Reddy’s Lab (Rs 12.4 crore) and MD of Cipla Umang Vohra (Rs 15.03 crore).

Interestingly, Dilip Sanghvi of Sun Pharma took home just a Rs 1in addition to the Rs 2,62,800 as perks in the last financial. Another industry tycoon, who stands as an example of moderation in compensation to the C-level executives, is India’s richest businessman Mukesh Ambani. Mr Ambani’s salary remained unchanged for the 11th consecutive year and the pay packet of the chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) stands at Rs15 crore since 2008-09.

It may be recalled that, Mr Murali Divi made it to top-10 highest paid CEOs club in 2015 and he was ranked 10th preceded by celebrity business tycoons such as Mukesh Ambani of RIL, Shinzo Nakanishi of Maruti Suzuki, Sunil Kant Munjal of Hero Moto Corp, Brijmohan Lall Munjal of Hero Group, Pawan Munjal of Hero Moto Corp, Kumar Mangalam Birla of Aditya Birla Group, Naveen Jindal of Jindal Steel and Power, Kavery Kalanithi of Sun TV Network, Kalanithi Maran of Sun TV Network, to name a few.