Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man, has once again taken no salary from his company, Reliance Industries, for the fifth year in a row. His main income now comes from dividends, the money he earns from the shares he owns in the company.
Ambani, who is 68 years old, had earlier set a limit of Rs. 15 crore per year as his salary from 2008-09 to 2019-20. But from 2020-21 onwards, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he stopped taking any salary to support the company. He has continued this since then.
As per the company’s latest annual report for 2024-25, he got zero pay with no salary, no allowances, no extra perks, and no retirement benefits.
Even though he takes no salary, Ambani still earns money through dividends from the shares he owns. He directly owns 1.61 crore shares of Reliance. Since the company declared a dividend of Rs. 5.50 per share, he earned around Rs. 8.85 crore this year.
Besides his personal shares, companies under his control (called promoter group firms) own 664.5 crore shares, which is about 50.07 per cent of the company. These shares earned a total dividend of around Rs. 3,655 crore.
What Other Members of the Ambani Family and Company Executives Earned in FY25
While Mukesh Ambani took no salary again this year, some of his close family members and top executives at Reliance Industries did receive their earnings.
His cousins, Nikhil and Hital Meswani, who are also part of the company’s board, earned Rs. 25 crore each in 2024-25. This is slightly less than what they got last year (Rs. 25.31 crore and Rs. 25.42 crore). Out of this, Rs. 17.28 crore came as a commission, which has stayed the same for the past three years.
P M S Prasad, an Executive Director at Reliance, saw his pay increase to Rs. 19.96 crore in 2024-25. Last year, he earned Rs. 17.93 crore. His salary this year also included bonuses based on his performance from the previous year (2023-24).
Mukesh Ambani’s three children: Isha, Akash, and Anant were added to the board in October 2023. At that time, they were not given any fixed salary. However, each of them earned Rs. 6 lakh as a sitting fee and Rs. 2.27 lakh as commission for attending board meetings.
In the earlier year, they had earned Rs. 4 lakh as sitting fee and a much higher Rs. 97 lakh as commission.
Anant Ambani, the youngest of the three, has now been made an Executive Director on the Reliance board. Starting this financial year, he will earn a salary between Rs. 10 crore and Rs. 20 crore.
Each of the independent directors received a Rs. 2.25 crore commission, which is the same as last year. They also earned a sitting fee for attending meetings.
Mukesh Ambani’s role and salary
Mukesh Ambani, who has been part of the Reliance board since 1977, became Chairman in 2002 after his father Dhirubhai Ambani passed away. In 2023, Mukesh Ambani was re-appointed as the company’s head for another five years, until April 2029. But once again, he chose not to take any salary.
In fact, Ambani has not taken any salary since 2020. He gave up his pay during the COVID-19 pandemic to show support as the country faced tough economic times. He continued this decision in 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, and now 2024-25.
During all these years, he did not take any:
- Allowances
- Perks
- Bonus or commission
- Retirement benefits
- Stock options
Before that, from 2008-09 to 2019-20, Ambani had fixed his salary at Rs. 15 crore per year, and did not increase it.