Anil Ambani calls on Prime Minister

Billionaire Anil Ambani today called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for close to an hour but refused comments on the purpose of his meeting. The meeting comes within days of the Supreme Court rejecting his Group firm RNRL's plea for cheap gas from Reliance Industries as had been decided in a private family agreement of 2005. The Reliance-Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group Chairman, who earlier in the day had an hour long meeting the Prime Minister's Private Secretary T K A Nair, did not take questions from media on the purpose of the visit. The apex court had on May 7 ruled that the Government is the owner of all gas until delivery to the consumers and had the right to fix its price and users. Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) was seeking supply of 28 million cubic meters per day of gas for 17 years at a price of $2.34 per million British thermal unit for the Group's greenfield power plant at Dadri near here, as opposed to the government-approved price of $4.2 per mmBtu. As per the Supreme Court verdict, RNRL can only get gas in future based on government allocation and pricing. While the court has asked RIL and RNRL to renegotiate the gas supply master agreement (GSMA) in 6 weeks, the provisions of any such agreement are to be in line with the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) and the ambit of government policy.