Venkataramanan exits Tata Trusts
MUMBAI: R Venkataramanan, a long-time Tata group associate, resigned as managing trustee of Tata Trusts on Wednesday.
A late evening press release from Tata Trusts, which has majority control of the $100 billion Tata Sons Ltd, said the trusts have accepted his resignation and that Venkataramanan will relinquish his responsibilities on March 31.
A committee of trustees, comprising Tata Trusts chairman Ratan N Tata and vice-chairmen Vijay Singh and Venu Srinivasan, has been established with immediate effect to oversee operations and select a chief executive for the trusts, the statement said.
The trustees also named Noel N Tata, chairman of Trent Ltd and managing director of Tata International, and Jehangir HC Jehangir, who is currently spearheading the healthcare mission at Jehangir Hospital, Pune, as trustees of Sir Ratan Tata Trust, the statement said.
Venkataramanan’s resignation comes after the income tax department on February 6 withdrew a longstanding tax exemption to Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, citing the ₹2.66 crore compensation paid to him as one of the department’s primary concerns.
Also, in May 2018, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case against Venkataramanan and other executives at low-cost airline AirAsia India, which is majority owned by the Tata group, for allegedly trying to bribe government officials to manipulate local civil aviation policies that would give the airline a competitive advantage.
Venkataramanan was the nominee for Tata Sons on the AirAsia India board and had allegedly lobbied to get approvals including Foreign Investment Promotion Bureau (FIPB) clearof ances and amendment/removal of the 5/20 rule, which at the time required airlines to operate for at least five years and induct 20 aircraft in its fleet before starting international operations. Both the income tax and CBI cases are believed to have emerged from documents submitted by Cyrus Mistry after he was ousted as Tata Sons chairman in December 2016.
Venkataramanan has continued to enjoy the Tata group’s support through the AirAsia imbroglio. For several years, he was executive assistant to Ratan Tata, the former chairman of the Tata group.
In Wednesday’s press release, Tata Trusts said Venkataramanan, at the trusts’ meeting, had informed the chairman and the trustees “that he had been considering other options, given that he was completing five years as the trusts’ executive trustee/ managing trustee, and sought to be relieved”.