Britain’s new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murthy came under the spotlight a few months back due to a matter related to her tax-compliance status in the UK.
Akshata is the daughter of tech billionaire and Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy, one of India‘s best known businessmen who has been dubbed the Bill Gates of India.
Akshata earned Rs 126.61 crore (USD 15.3 million) in dividend income in 2022, from her shareholding in India’s second-largest IT firm Infosys.
She held 3.89 crore shares, or 0.93 per cent, of Infosys at the end of September, according to company filings with the stock exchanges.
Her holding is worth Rs 5,956 crore (about USD 721 million) at Tuesday’s trading price of Rs 1,527.40 on the BSE.
Infosys paid Rs 16 per share final dividend for the 2021-22 fiscal on May 31, this year. For the current year, the firm this month announced an interim dividend of Rs 16.5, according to the company’s stock exchange filings.
The two dividends totaled Rs 32.5 per share or Rs 126.61 crore for Akshata.
Infosys is among the best dividend-paying companies in India. In 2021, it paid a total of Rs 30 per share dividend, which would have given Akshata a total of Rs 119.5 crore in that calendar year.
Sunak, 42, on Sunday won the race to lead the Conservative Party and is now set to become Britain’s first prime minister of Indian origin and its youngest leader in modern times.
While Sunak is a British national, his wife Akshata is an Indian citizen. Her non-domiciled status, which allows her to earn money abroad without paying taxes in Britain for a period of up to 15 years, has been a divisive issue in the UK.
Non-domiciled status of Akshata became an issue of discussion in Britain when Sunak first entered the race to become the prime minister in April this year.
