An interesting anecdote shared by podcaster Kushal Lodha reveals the huge gap between the total package offered by companies vs what employees get in hand. Last year, during a conversation with entrepreneur Aman Dhattarwal, Lodha revealed that an African company came to an IIM for placements and offered a package of ₹80 LPA on paper. The catch? Exactly half of that ₹80 lakh was earmarked as “kidnapping insurance”, and employees would only earn ₹40 lakh as fixed income.
Firm offers kidnapping insurance
“This CTC vs in-hand salary is a sort of a scam, I feel,” said Kushal Lodha during the podcast. He went on to elaborate on this point by citing the example of a company that came to IIM Calcutta for placements with an attractive package of ₹80 LPA.
While the package sounded impressive on paper, IIM students soon realised that they would not actually be earning ₹80 LPA.
The company, based somewhere in Africa, had set a “kidnapping insurance” component in the CTC. This meant that should their employee be kidnapped, the company would pay up to ₹40 lakh as ransom to the kidnappers.
(Also read: UAE-based Indian businessman kidnapped in Kerala, rescued. Ex-employee among accused)
“This company came to IIM Calcutta offering ₹80 lakh per annum. And this was an Africa-based company. Apparently, kidnappings are very common there,” Lodha told Dhattarwal during the interview.
{{/usCountry}}“This company came to IIM Calcutta offering ₹80 lakh per annum. And this was an Africa-based company. Apparently, kidnappings are very common there,” Lodha told Dhattarwal during the interview.
{{/usCountry}}“So out of that ₹80 LPA, ₹40 LPA was fixed. The other ₹40 lakh was kidnapping insurance… which the company would pay as ransom if the employee was abducted,” Lodha revealed.
Although this conversation took place last year, it has been recirculating online and has sparked much amusement on social media.
“Ransom 41 lakh mang liya to baadme claim kar sakte hai kya? (If the kidnappers demand ₹41 lakh ransom, can employees claim it next year?)” asked one person jokingly in the comments section.
“Dost ke saath mil kar khud ko kidnap karwa ke paisa vasul karo every year (Get your friends to kidnap you every year to receive that money),” another suggested.
“At least they honestly say our justice system is useless. No false hope,” a user added.
Several people identified the company as Tolaram Group. “Tolaram.Even in engineering colleges they do the same thing,” an Instagram user said.