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Salary Guide

What Finance Roles Pay In India and Middle East

Benchmarks across six markets in India and the Middle East, with the scope that decides where a role lands inside its band.

Compiled June 2026 · India and the Middle East · Startups, Corporates, BFSI, GCCs, PE and VCUpdated

Same title, same years

Finance Controller · 10–15 years

₹35L₹75L
One entity, running an existing closeFour entities, IFRS, building the function

The difference isn't seniority. It's scope.

Instant benchmark

What should your role pay?

Pick a country, a role and an experience band — the range comes straight from the tables in this guide, in that market's own currency.

₹80–150 lakh

India · Startups · CFO (Series C and beyond) · 10–15 yrs

Bottom of bandTop of band

Against everything this role pays across all experience levels.

Why the range is wide: the number moves on the scale of the business and on whether the role builds the finance function or runs one that already works.

See the full Startups table →

Indicative annual range. India reads in INR lakhs, the UAE in AED and Saudi Arabia in SAR. Where a role sits inside its range depends on scope — see 'What Moves a Candidate Within a Band'.

Browse by sector

StartupsPriced by funding stage, not headcount.CFO ₹80–350LCorporatesManufacturing and services. Scale sets the number.CFO ₹55–500LBFSIWhere finance and the regulator are inseparable.CFO ₹60–400LGCC and Shared ServicesTwo workforces, one org chart, different prices.Controller ₹40–200LPE, VC and Family OfficesTwo markets routinely confused for one.Fund CFO ₹55–300LMiddle EastUAE and Saudi. The package matters more than the number.CFO AED 500k–1.5M

Understand the numbers

What Moves a Candidate Within a BandQualification and Notice Periods

FAQs

Common questions

It depends far more on sector and scope than on title. A Finance Manager runs 12 to 15 lakh as a fresher and 65 lakh and above at 15+ years; a CFO runs from 55 lakh in a mid-size business to 500 lakh in a large listed group. Each sector section in this guide carries its own table by role and experience band.

The tables are compiled from publicly available compensation data, cross-referenced across LinkedIn, Naukri, AmbitionBox, Glassdoor, PayScale, SalaryExpert, ERI and ICAI's published placement data, then checked against HireGenie's live searches. Where sources disagreed materially we took the narrower range. The commentary and hiring guidance come from our own search work, and the two are kept separate.

It is free, and the full edition is available as a PDF in exchange for an email address. It is compiled annually — this edition was compiled in June 2026. Compensation moves through the year, so treat a range as the boundary of a sensible conversation rather than a fixed answer.

Because the jobs behind one title genuinely differ. Two Finance Controllers with the same years can be worth 35 lakh and 55 lakh, and the gap is scope: how many entities, which reporting framework, whether there is a real audit, and whether the person runs a finance function or builds one. The section on what moves a candidate within a band sets out the seven drivers.

Yes. Alongside the five Indian sector sections there is a Middle East section covering the UAE in AED and Saudi Arabia in SAR, including how a Gulf package is structured and how much higher an India offer has to be to match the same take-home.

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