Some are seeking to go the whole hog and improve substantially upon last year's payments (such as Reliance Industries and Larsen & Toubro), others have complicated computation ratios that yield satisfactory bonuses to their employees (such as Colgate), yet others, such as Hindustan Lever, are sticking to the book, and paying out what is stipulated in the Bonus Act, and no more.

Reliance Industries is offering about 34 per cent bonus for all its employees. The minimum bonus that Reliance staffer would get this Diwali is about Rs 20,000 and a maximum would be about Rs 2.5 lakh. This excludes the gift coupons for cloth material and other Reliance products handed out to the employees.

This is an increase of 1.67 per cent from last year's bonus. From a bonusof 32.33 per cent of the total emoluments paid in 1996-97 the company has hiked the bonus payments to 34 per cent of the total emoluments.Larsen & Tourbo has hiked its bonus by 2.25 per cent to 20.25 per cent from 18.25 per cent the last year. The company has raised the basic salary from Rs 6,390 to Rs 6,831 for computing the bonus.

As per this computation, the minimum bonus a L&T staffer would get is over Rs 6,000 and the maximum is about Rs 22,600 depending on the number of years of service rendered.

According to company sources, Colgate Palmolive has a system for computing the bonus on the basis of number of working days. Apart from the Rs 6,000 required to be paid under the Bonus Act for every working day the employee is paid about Rs 20. As per this computation the employees were given a maximum bonus of Rs 29,000 last year as compared to Rs 24,000 paid in 1996.

According to sources, at Philips India there is no change in the bonus payments. Over and above the statutory payments as per the BonusAct, Philips India makes special payments which range from Rs 750 to Rs 5,000.

In sharp contrast, companies like Hindustan Lever are making only statutory bonus payments as per the Bonus Act to only a small section of employees. According to a HLL spokesperson, "All employees earning salaries up to a limit of Rs 3,500 are paid about 20 per cent of the basic as bonus."

According to the Siemens India spokesperson, "The company is only making payments strictly according to the requriements of the Bonus Act due to the bad fiscal year. This year the bonus is still to be decided but it may be in the same range."