1 / 15Reliance Industries (RIL), India’s biggest company in terms of market value, has rolled out bonus/variable payout to its over 2 lakh employees for fiscal 2021. The bonus payout was cited in a company note to employees on Monday. 2 / 15The move comes after RIL reported a 35% growth in profit to Rs 53,739 crore in 2020-21, the first full financial year of the coronavirus epidemic. The variable payout was made to employees of its five divisions including oil-to-chemicals (O2C) and consumer (retail & telecom). 3 / 15RIL added more than 75,000 people to the consumer business in fiscal 2021, which was among the large hires in corporate India. 4 / 15During the same year, the company’s employee benefits expenses increased 5% to Rs 14,817 crore. 5 / 15Consumer business contributed significantly to RIL’s earnings on the back of people increasingly shopping online and using data for work and otherwise amid the pandemic. 6 / 15But O2C’s contribution declined due to demand contraction for major products, including jet fuel.7 / 15In April 2020, RIL had cut salaries of O2C employees earning more than Rs 15 lakh annually by 10% in the wake of the “adverse impact” of Covid on the division.8 / 15Annual bonus/performance-linked incentives, which are normally paid in the first quarter of a year, were also deferred. 9 / 15At that time, RIL said that its chairman Mukesh Ambani would forgo his entire compensation for fiscal 2021.10 / 15Ambani’s salary in fiscal 2019 was Rs 15 crore, which had remained constant for 11 consecutive years.11 / 15However, six months later, RIL reversed the 10% cut in salary retrospectively from April 2020 and paid bonuses that were deferred to the O2C employees. 12 / 15Operating profit of O2C, the traditional business of RIL, declined 29% to Rs 38,170 crore. 13 / 15In its latest earnings presentation, RIL said oil demand recovery in 2021 will be lower to the level in 2019, the year before Covid hit India. 14 / 15It added that lockdowns with rising coronavirus cases in India may impact demand growth. Additionally, supply overhang coupled with higher exports from China are challenges for its O2C business.15 / 15