New Delhi, Aug. 10: India on Tuesday protested against the US proposal to increase visa fees under the Border Security Bill calling it “discriminatory”. The Bill seeks a hike in H1B and L1 visa fees to fund US border security.
As per the Bill, companies, where American citizens form less than 50 per cent of the workforce, will have to pay an additional $2,000 on H1B and L1 visas. Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, India’s commerce minister, Mr Anand Sharma, also termed as ‘unfortunate’ the remarks of a US senator calling tech major Infosys a ‘chop-shop’.
Meanwhile, with US mid-term elections less than three months away, the US President, Mr Barack Obama, also scaled up his anti-outsourcing rhetoric. Speaking at a fund-raiser in Texas, Mr Obama said that the country has returned to competitiveness and jobs are no longer migrating to countries such as India, China and Germany.
Gradually getting into the election mode, the US President has been frequently in his public speeches claiming how his policies are aimed towards stopping outsourcing of jobs and manufacturing.
Instead of spending money on special interest tax loopholes that don’t create American jobs, we said we’re going to make smart investments in education and innovation and clean energy that will benefit all people and our entire economy, he said. “Instead of giving special interests free rein to write their own regulations, we demanded new accountability from Washington to Wall Street so that big corporations had to play by the same rules as small companies and individuals. That’s only fair,” Mr Obama said.
India’s commerce minister, however, finds the US policy quite unfair. “Thou-gh the need of the US government to strengthen their border security is understandable, it is inexplicable as to why our companies have to bear the cost of such a highly discriminatory law,” Mr Sharma wrote in a letter to the US trade representative, Mr Ron Kirk.
“It will have an adverse impact on the competitiveness and commercial interests of Indian companies sending professionals to undertake projects locally for American customers in the US,” the minister added.
The minister in his letter expressed the concerns of Indian industry that the bill will impact primarily companies of Indian origin, which account for less than 12 per cent of the total visas issued by the US. While the US firms use these visas in larger numbers, they will not be liable for the increased fees and Indian firms will be affected.