NEW DELHI — With his full frame, studious face and good-boy hairstyle, Mukesh Ambani, the richest of all Indians whose incomes are known, has the appearance of a dependable family man who would make money for those who trust him. It is a process he often calls “creating value” for people, whom he usually refers to as “shareholders.”

But this image has been diminished of late, even though his Reliance Industries Ltd., India’s largest privately owned company, which has interests in oil and gas, retail and telecommunications, is richer than ever.

This month the government imposed, yet again, a penalty on the corporation for failing to meet a predetermined level of production of natural gas from India’s largest reserve, situated in a river basin in southern India. The latest penalty takes the total to more than $2.3 billion, an amount that Reliance would have to forgo when it tries to recover its costs from the sale of the natural gas.

A few politicians and government officials have alleged that Reliance has deliberately reduced gas production in the hope that it will be able to sell it at a high price later when the government raises its price. Reliance has been demanding that the government, a major buyer of natural gas, raise its price, but it has said that the low production levels now are the fault of geological and other factors.