No salary or ESOPs paid to Madhabi Puri Buch after retirement, clarifies ICICI

Shares of private sector bank ICICI Bank Ltd are trading down in the early morning trade today after it denied having paid salary or ESOPs to Madhabi Puri Buch after her retirement, contrary to certain allegations by the Congress party.

“ICICI Bank or its group companies have not paid any salary or granted any ESOPs to Madhabi Puri Buch after her retirement, other than her retiral benefits. It may be noted that she had opted for superannuation with effect from October 31, 2013," ICICI Bank in its exchange filing says.

The bank says during her employment with the ICICI Group, she received compensation in the form of salary, retiral benefits, bonus and ESOPs, in line with applicable policies. "Under the Bank’s ESOP rules, the ESOPs vest over the next few years from the date of allotment. As per rules existing at the time of her ESOP grant, employees including retired employees had the choice to exercise their ESOPs anytime up to 10 years from the date of vesting."

The bank also says that as per Income Tax rules, the difference between the price of the stock on the day of exercise and the allotment price is treated as perquisite income and is reflected in Part B of Form 16 of employees, including retired employees. "The Bank is required to deduct the perquisite tax on this income. In addition, Form -16 covers the payment made towards the retiral benefits of former employees."

All the payments made to Buch post her retirement had accrued to her during her employment phase with the ICICI Group, and these payments comprise ESOPs and retiral benefits, says the bank.

Shares of ICICI Bank, meanwhile, fell 1.45% to ₹1,227.70 on the BSE in the early morning trade, taking its m-cap down to ₹8,62,855.89 crore.

Notably, the Congress party on Monday alleged the SEBI chairperson drew a regular salary from ICICI Bank, despite being a full-time member of the market regulator. The party demanded that Buch should step down for alleged violation of Section 54 of the SEBI Act.

“SEBI Chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch was a whole-time member of SEBI between April 5, 2017 and October 4, 2021. She was appointed as the Chairperson of Sebi on March 2, 22. As a market regulator, Sebi has a very significant role,” said Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera.

Alleging irregularities, Khera said SEBI chairperson Buch has been drawing regular salary between 2017 and 2024 worth ₹16.80 crore from ICICI Bank. “The Congress party would like to know why the SEBI chairperson was drawing a salary from the ICICI bank, ICICI Prudential and ESOP, upon which the TDS was deducted by ICICI. This is a gross violation of Section 54 of Sebi (Employees’ Service) Regulations, 2001 and Section 5 of SEBI Code on Conflict of Interests for Board Members 2008. This is a matter of office of profit,” Khera added.

Khera also put out a latest tweet on X, saying the party will take forward "the expose’ and the feeble defence to it" in presser today.

Buch, meanwhile, has not issued any clarification on the matter so far.