LN Mittal's pay packet 33 times bulkier than CEOs in India

Mittal's basic salary of $two million is more than 22 times of the average salary earned by a CEO in India.

NRI steel leader Lakshmi Mittal earns a pay packet of over $3.6 million in cash as Mittal Steel's chief executive officer -- a figure which is over 33 times of the average annual compensation of a CEO in India.

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Mittal earned a base salary of $2.005 million and $1.677 million in performance related payments in 2006, Mittal Steel disclosed in its annual report sent to its shareholders last week.

Besides, the India-born business tycoon was also granted 1,00,000 stock options worth about $1.8 million in 2006, taking the total options held by him to 4,40,000 with an estimated value of over eight million dollars.

Even after excluding the stock options part, Mittal's total cash compensation in a year makes the average pay packet of a CEO in India pale in comparison, which has been put at $1,11,510 by human resources consultancy firm Mercer HR Consulting.

Mittal's base salary of about two million dollars is also more than 22 times of the average base salary earned by a CEO in India.

According to a recent survey conducted by Mercer HR, Indian CEOs are paid the lowest among their Asian counterparts with a base salary of $89,759 and total annual cash payments of $1,11,510.

The huge gap comes despite Mittal taking a pay cut of 1,89,000 dollars from about 2.2 million dollars of base salary in 2005. He also did not get any performance related payments in 2005, although he held stock options worth about six million dollars at the end of that year.