- Friday, March 24, 2023
By: Chandrashekar Bhat
AKSHATA MURTY, the wife of Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak, is set to receive a dividend payment of £6 million from the Indian IT major Infosys in which she has a 0.93 per cent stake.
The company, founded by her father NR Narayana Murthy, has declared a dividend of Rs 16 (16p) per equity share.
Wednesday’s (13) announcement of the payout came amid a raging controversy over Murty’s non-dom status which exempts non-Britons living in the UK from paying taxes on their overseas incomes.
However, Murty made it clear last week that she would pay local taxes on her worldwide income despite not being legally obliged to do so.
It is seen as her attempt to save her husband from the criticism that he has raised taxes on people but shielded his family.
Her promise means she will have to pay £2.5m to the UK coffers on her dividend from the Bangalore-headquartered company, according to a This Is Money report.
While Murty is accused of benefiting from Infosys’ operations in Russia which invaded Ukraine, the Indian company asserted it is not engaged in any business with Russian clients currently, nor has any such plans going forward.
“The work we do is for a few of our global clients that have operations in Russia. We have less than 100 employees in Russia… Given what is going on in the region, we have started to transition all of our work from our centre in Russia, to our centres outside Russia,” Infosys CEO Salil Parekh said.
He said the company is not working with any Russian clients now.
Asked if Infosys faced any client queries over Murty’s stake in the company, he said, “we have no comments to make on any individual shareholders.”
The company posted a net profit of Rs 56.86 billion (£570m) in the January-March quarter against Rs 50.76 bn (£510m) during the same period a year ago.
Infosys shares closed 0.41 per cent higher at Rs 1,748 (£17.49) on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Wednesday ahead of the announcement of the results, which came after Indian market hours. However, its ADR (American depository receipt) slid 6.11 per cent on the New York Stock Exchange.
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