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Congress alleged in September 2024 that Madhabi Puri Buch’s average annual pension and other retiral benefits from ICICI Bank exceeded her average annual salary there. ICICI Bank disputed the framing of the payments, saying they were retiral benefits accrued during her employment. The available reports and bank filing record competing claims; they do not independently establish the figures or an adjudicated finding of wrongdoing.
What Congress alleged
At a September 3, 2024 press conference, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said Buch’s average annual salary at ICICI was ₹1.3 crore, compared with average annual pension and other retiral benefits of ₹2.77 crore. Scroll reported that Khera did not disclose the source of the data at the press conference. The amounts should therefore be understood as figures Congress cited, not as independently verified or audited totals. Scroll’s report describes the allegation.
Khera also cited a gratuity of ₹71.9 lakh for financial year 2013–14 and a commuted pension of ₹5.36 crore for 2014–15. Congress questioned alleged recurring benefits from 2016–17 onward, including its stated average of ₹2.77 crore a year from 2016–17 to 2020–21. The reports reviewed do not provide the underlying payment records or calculations needed to verify those claims.
“Which is the job in which the pension is more than the salary?” Khera asked. His question expressed the party’s challenge; it does not establish that the comparison uses equivalent categories or periods.
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How ICICI Bank responded
In a September 2, 2024 filing, ICICI Bank said Buch opted for superannuation effective October 31, 2013. The bank said it did not pay her salary or grant her ESOPs after retirement, apart from retiral benefits. It added that compensation during her employment had included salary, retiral benefits, bonus and ESOPs. The filing’s position was that post-retirement payments had accrued during her employment with the ICICI Group. Read ICICI Bank’s filing on BSE.
“All the payments made to Ms. Buch post her retirement had accrued to her during her employment phase with the ICICI Group.”
That is the bank’s official explanation, not an independent accounting of every payment. The terminology also matters: Congress referred to pension and retiral benefits, while the bank described post-retirement payments as retiral benefits. The available reporting does not itemize the components sufficiently to show that the two sides were comparing the same types of compensation.
Why employee stock options entered the dispute
ICICI’s filing separately addressed stock options. The bank said rules applicable when grants were made allowed employees, including retirees, to exercise ESOPs for up to ten years after vesting. It also said income-tax rules treated the difference between the stock price at exercise and the allotment price as perquisite income, reflected in Part B of Form 16. The filing sets out the bank’s explanation.
This explanation distinguishes a post-retirement grant from an option exercised after retirement: the bank said it had not granted Buch ESOPs after her retirement, while asserting that previously accrued compensation and options could produce later payments or tax entries. The filing explains the bank’s position; it does not provide transaction-level records that would independently establish which options were exercised, when, or for what amounts.
Relevant dates
- 2007: Buch joined ICICI Bank, according to contemporaneous reporting.
- October 31, 2013: ICICI said her superannuation took effect on this date.
- April 2017: She joined SEBI as a whole-time director, according to contemporaneous reporting. Congress alleged some payments came after this appointment.
- March 2022: She became SEBI chairperson, as reported in September 2024. This is a historical date and does not describe her current office.
- September 2–3, 2024: ICICI filed its response; Congress made the allegation at a press conference the following day.
What the available record does—and does not—show
The central comparison is between Congress’s claimed average annual salary of ₹1.3 crore and its claimed average annual pension and retiral benefits of ₹2.77 crore. The underlying calculations, payment records, component breakdown and precise basis for comparing the averages are not included in the cited reports. Because the categories may differ, “retiral benefits” should not be treated as synonymous with pension in every instance.
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The cited material documents an allegation and ICICI Bank’s response. It does not independently settle the amounts, the composition or timing of payments, particular ESOP transactions, or whether any conflict-of-interest rule was breached. The bank’s filing is not a regulator’s or court’s adjudication. Scroll’s coverage and contemporaneous reports from India Today and Moneycontrol report the dispute and the bank’s response.
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