Mumbai, June 28: Mukesh Ambani's cousins - Nikhil and Hital Meswani - have for the first time earned a salary higher than the Reliance Industries chairman and managing director who has steadfastly capped his remuneration at Rs 15 crore in 2016-17 for the ninth year in a row.

The two cousins - executive directors in the company - earned Rs 16.58 crore each.

Under the remuneration rules, Ambani is entitled to earn a remuneration of up to Rs 38.75 crore, which means he has opted to forego a sum of almost Rs 24 crore. He also chose to opt out of stock options in the country's largest private company that reported a net profit of Rs 29,901 crore in the year ended March 31 on consolidated revenues of Rs 3,30,180 crore.

Under the provisions of the Companies Act 2013, "the remuneration payable to any one managing director; or wholetime director or manager shall not exceed five per cent of the net profits of the company and if there is more than one such director remuneration shall not exceed ten per cent of the net profits to all such directors and managers taken together."

"The chairman and managing director's compensation has been set at Rs 15 crore against Rs 38.75 crore as approved, reflecting his desire to continue to set a personal example for moderation in compensation levels," RIL said in its annual report for 2016-17.

Ambani's remuneration for 2016-17 included Rs 4.16 crore as salary and another Rs 60 lakh by way of perquisites and allowances. He got retirement benefits of Rs 71 lakh and Rs 9.53 crore as commission on profit. The base salary, allowances, retirement benefits and commission on profit are the same as what he got in the previous financial year.

The static remuneration came despite RIL posting a robust 19 per cent growth in net profits during the year. The year saw its refining and petrochemicals businesses achieving record levels of profitability, while revenues at Reliance Retail increased 60 per cent to Rs 33,765 crore. It was also marked by the commercial launch of Jio, which added 100 million subscribers in 170 days.

Ambani voluntarily capped his compensation at Rs 15 crore in October 2009 amid a debate over the rightsizing of CEO salaries.

The Ambani cousins had earned a salary of Rs 14.42 crore and Rs 14.41 crore, respectively, in the previous year. Further, executive director P.M.S Prasad saw his remuneration go up to Rs 7.87 crore in 2016-17, from Rs 7.23 crore in 2015-16.

Refinery chief Pawan Kumar Kapil, however, saw his compensation drop to Rs 2.54 crore from Rs 2.94 crore in 2015 -16.

Besides, Nikhil and Hital got stock options worth Rs 64.18 crore each, according to the annual report. Prasad got stock options of Rs 45 crore and Kapil got Rs 1 crore in stock options.

Ambani's wife, Nita Ambani, a non-executive director on the company's board, earned Rs 4 lakh as sitting fee and a commission of Rs 1.35 crore.