Mukesh Ambani meets Montek for nearly an hour

Amid his company grappling with a string of regulatory issues, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani on Monday met Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia for nearly an hour.

Reliance Industries is facing penalty for falling gas output from its KG-D6 fields.

It has also demanded tripling of its KG-D6 gas price from April 1, 2014 after the current below-market rate of $4.205 per mmBtu expires.

Besides, RIL is seen as a bidder in the forthcoming auction of telecom spectrum.

Ambani, the richest Indian, did not interact with the media after the meeting saying that he would not take any questions, and rushed out of the Yojana Bhawan, Ahluwalia's office.

Ahluwalia too did not respond to the media queries about his discussions with Ambani, saying that it was just a courtesy call.

Yojana Bhawan is being thronged by industry top brass ever since Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took direct charge of the finance portfolio after Pranab Mukherjee stepped down to contest presidential election.

Last week, Vodafone India Chairman Analjit Singh and Chairman of UB Group Vijay Mallya had called upon Ahluwlaia.

Officials in the Planning Commission said many more top industrialist are expected to visit Yojna Bhawan in the coming days as Ahluwalia is expected play a greater role in policy making after the Prime Minister took over Finance portfolio.

"Being an important functionary in the government, it is obvious that industrialists will meet him," a Planning Commission official said.

When Singh, as the Finance Minister, ushered in economic reforms in India in the early 1990s, Ahluwalia was the Finance Secretary.

Image: Mukesh Ambani