Should vulgar salaries be given to CEOs?
To put a check on the public
expenditure, the Government has advised India Inc to refrain from doling out
“vulgar” salaries to CEOs. "I think when we are working on this
(austerity), we can hardly say that we (will) shut our eyes on what salary the
CEOs are going to take,"
"I don't think anyone in India
today, in politics or outside politics has reached the level of liberalism
where vulgarity is also a fundamental right. "Minister should not be
judging who deserves what salary. We are moving away from control to
regulation. But it doesn't mean that you are going to be completely free,"
"Let's get the opinion of the
standing committee (on the Bill), then we will move forward," the Minister
said, pointing out that "it's now before the same Parliament that has
supported this attitude of austerity ... Let us see what their views are".
Noting that the issue of CEO's pay
packages cannot go unnoticed, Khurshid said, "Prime Minister's indication
to industry (has to be taken)... with paramount importance today, particularly
we are trying to promote, inculcate a culture of austerity.
"Nothing is to been in
isolation. We have to see on what accountability and what responsibility is to
be imposed on directors, CEOs of companies. We still haven't taken a final view
on whether two persons can be taken as chairpersons and managing
directors," the Minister said.
Remuneration should commensurate
with the qualifications of the individuals and time they spent, he said, adding
there should be transparency in the working of various committees of a company.
"Our programme is not only
about rules alone. Our austerity programme is about an attitude - a culture of
non-vulgarity, of posterity, of simplicity and it has nothing to with the
tickets that you buy, the seat in which you travel.
"It is also to do with how you
conduct yourself, how you behave, what you wear, what you do, what you speak
and eat. It must be a pervasive culture. You are travelling economy class but
you go and have a bash where people are going hungry, is in think
immoral," he said.
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