Mukesh Ambani meets Prime Minister over windfall tax

New Delhi, July 14 : Mukesh Ambani, head of Reliance Industries, today met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and a host of other senior government functionaries here to explain how demands for levy of windfall tax was bad economics.

Ambani is believed to have told policy makers that fiscal revenue gain from a WPT would be short-term in nature, but the economic costs of introducing an unstable fiscal regime could be long lasting.

Ambani first met Singh, followed by a meeting with Congress President and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

He also had a series of meeting with top bureaucrats, including a call to Cabinet Secretary K. M. Chandrasekhar.

With UPA Government's newfound ally Samajwadi Party gunning for Reliance Industries, Ambani's visit assumes importance.

Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh raised a number of issues, including a demand for withdrawal of Export Oriented Unit status for RIL's Jamnagar refinery along with a suggestion that Prime Minister should intervene to bring peace between Mukesh and younger brother Anil.

ANI