The Congress on Tuesday alleged that Securities and Exchange Board of India chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch received more money as a pension after retiring from ICICI Bank than the salary she drew while working there.

Buch retired from ICICI Bank in October 2013. She had joined the bank in 2007.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera has claimed that Buch drew an average annual salary of Rs 1.3 crore during her employment, but received an average annual pension of Rs 2.77 crore after retirement.

“Which is the job in which the pension is more than the salary?” Khera asked at a press conference on Tuesday without disclosing the source of the data.

Khera’s claims came a day after ICICI Bank denied paying a salary or granting Employee Stock Ownership Plan benefits to Buch after she retired from the company. An Employee Stock Ownership Plan gives employees of a company an ownership stake in the form of equity shares.

The bank was responding to allegations made by the Congress that Buch drew an income of Rs 16.8 crore from the ICICI Bank between 2017 and 2024.

The Opposition party alleged that this presented a conflict of interest as Buch had joined the Securities and Exchange Board of India as a whole-time director in April 2017. She became its chairperson in March 2022.

The amount received by Buch from ICICI Bank after retirement was over five times her income of Rs 3.3 crore that she has received from the markets regulator, the Congress had alleged on Monday.

On Tuesday, Khera said that Buch had received a gratuity of Rs 71.9 lakh in the financial year 2013-’14 from ICICI Bank upon retirement. She subsequently received a retirement-commuted pension of Rs 5.36 crore in 2014-’15.

The Congress leader also claimed that ICICI Bank began paying Buch a “retiral benefit” in 2017, around the time she joined the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

“If there was a settlement between Madhabi Puri Buch and ICICI in 2014-’15 and she did not receive anything from ICICI in 2015-’16, then why did the pension restart in 2016-’17?” he asked. “The so-called ‘retiral benefit’ given by ICICI to Ms. Madhabi P. Buch from 2016-’17 to 2020-’21 averages to around Rs. 277 lacs per annum. How can a person's retiral benefit be more than her salary as an employee?”

Khera also referred to ICICI Bank’s statement clarifying that their employees and retired employees had the choice to exercise their Employee Stock Ownership Plan benefits “anytime up to a period of 10 years from the date of vesting”.

“ICICI has written on an American website that if one resigns from ICICI Bank, then ESOPs can be exercised within three months of the resignation,” Khera claimed. “But Madhabi Buch ji is still running ESOPs even after eight years of resigning. Why does not every ICICI employee get this kind of benefit?”

Khera also claimed that ICICI Bank had paid Tax Deducted at Source on the Employee Stock Ownership Plan on behalf of Buch.

The Congress spokesperson asked whether this applied to all employees of the bank. “But if ICICI pays TDS on ESOPs on behalf of Madhabi Puri Buch, then should it not be counted in the income of Madhabi Puri Buch?” he asked.

“If it is in the income, then tax should be paid,” Khera said. “So why did ICICI not show this TDS amount in taxable income? This is a violation of the Income Tax Act.”

In its statement on Monday, ICICI Bank had said that during Bach’s employment with the company, she received compensation in the form of salary, retiral benefits, bonus and Employee Stock Ownership Plan benefits, in line with applicable policies.

It added that under the bank’s Employee Stock Ownership Plan rules, the benefit “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 a period of 10 years from the date of vesting,” read the statement. “All the payments made to Ms. Buch post her retirement had accrued to her during her employment phase with the ICICI Group. These payments comprise ESOPs and retiral benefits.”

Khera alleged on Monday that Buch held an office of profit while being a member of the markets regulator, thus violating Section 54 of the 2001 SEBI Employees’ Service Regulations. He also claimed that her actions violated the markets regulator’s Code on Conflict of Interest for Board Members.

The SEBI chairperson had in August said that she had recused herself from any proceedings involving the ICICI Group.

The Congress’ claims come against the backdrop of allegations by United States-based firm Hindenburg Research that Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch had “hidden stakes” in offshore entities tied to stock price manipulation and money laundering by the Adani Group.

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