K. R. Muthukaruppan, Chennai

There is of course a law regulating managerial remuneration. It puts a cap of 5 per cent on the managing director’s salary and an aggregate cap of 10 per cent if there is more than one such director in a company. This is what encourages honchos to take a substantial party of their salary by way of commission.

I agree with your implied view that this does raise substantive issues.

The solution for this was provided by Mr N. R. Narayana Murthy of Infosys who said a couple of years ago that the differential between the highest and the lowest salary in an organisation should not be more than 15 times the latter.

What this would have boiled down to is Mr Mukesh Ambani would have had to pay Rs 1.67 crore to the lowly shop level worker or his peon before he helped himself to a whopping Rs 25 crore. I am sure this would have halted him in his tracks. What Mr Murthy said should be sanctified by an amendment to the company law.

I get my prepaid mobile connection recharged. Sometimes the recharge expenditure is evidenced by a card but more often the recharge is done by the agent directly through his mobile for which apparently he has a special registration with the service provider. No receipt or other evidence is given by the agent. The service provider also has expressed its inability to help. How can I book the recharging expenses to my business account?

B. G. Reddy, email

I can understand if a small agent refuses to give a receipt but not when the service provider himself does so. He should have no difficulty provided you are able to give the unique number that must be generated by the service provider’s computer system establishing a link between you the payer and the agent. I am sure the agent would be willing to give you this number so that you can request the service provider to give you individual or consolidated receipts.

Are independent directors too required to hold qualification shares?

NRK Marimuthu, Namakkal

Yes.

I am working in an old private sector bank for the past seven years. During January 2005, I was elevated as officer and executed a bond with the bank to serve at least for five years from January 2005. Now I wish to switch over to another bank.

According to the bond executed by me, I have to pay Rs 1 lakh, as liquidation damage along with Rs 7,200 incurred by the bank for giving me outside training. Can I claim this Rs 1,07,200 as rebate or relief under any of the sections of the Income-Tax Act.

V. K. Karthik, email

No. There is no provision in the income-tax law that allows you to do so. But this does not detract from the intrinsic fairness of your expectation given the fact that the same income-tax law imposes tax on you when your new employer agrees to reimburse or pay the salary in lieu of notice period to the employer whose employment you have quit.

What is the difference between notice and special notice under the Companies Act?

NRK Marimuthu, Namkkal

Notice is given by the company to its members. Normally a 21-day notice is required to be given by a public company both for Annual General Meeting and Extraordinary General Meeting.

A special notice on the other hand is required to be given by a member intending to move a resolution at the meeting. For example, notice of the intention to remove the auditor or a director is required to be given by a member intending to do so to the company 14 days before the date of the meeting.

S. MURLIDHARAN

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