CTC and gratuity, as part thereof, are subjects of hot discussions nowadays. You can find discussions on it in this forum itself. Please go through them.
My personal opinion is that gratuity is a statutory payment to be made by an employer when an employee leaves his company after serving for at least 5 years continuously. Certainly, this 5 years' service is not required when the payment becomes due consequent to the death of an employee. The amount of gratuity depends on the salary of the employee at the time of his leaving due to any reason, including his death. How to decide the amount of gratuity which may become due after 5 years, 7 years, 10 years, or after such long years that come on his date of superannuation? There are offers fabricated with such projected gratuity and such amounts taken as the cost to the company, the CTC, but it is basically wrong.
I am sure that there will be discussions on it as in the past in reply to similar threads. I had earlier posted an article titled "CTC Vs BTC" on my Blog. The basic thing I wanted to convey was that employees are not merely cost factors but by employing them, the employers get some benefits, and hence Benefits To Company (BTC).
Regards,
Madhu.T.K