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The Prime Minister’s Office has stepped in to monitor plans of the Government and the IT industry to counter threats posed by the new US Immigration Bill to companies such as Wipro, Infosys and TCS.
The Bill, currently being debated in the US Senate Judiciary Committee, talks about imposing multiple restrictions on companies that employ a sizeable number of foreigners. It has been introduced by a group of eight Senators — four each from the Democrat and Republican parties — which increases its chances of getting through.
‘Detailed plan’
“The PMO recently called a meeting with officials from the Commerce Department and representatives from industry body Nasscom to discuss how the country would deal with the issue. The matter is being taken up at the political, official as well as industry level,” a Government official told Business Line .
India is unhappy with the Immigration Bill because while it creates more H-1B and L-1 visas (both are work visas), it introduces restrictions on workers and wages. This would make things harder for IT companies that employ a sizeable number of Indian employees in their US operations.
A Nasscom delegation was recently in the US to lobby against the restrictive provisions in the Bill. The US India Business Council, too, has joined forces with Nasscom, which has reportedly hired lobbyist Barbour Griffith & Rogers to make its case with US lawmakers.
“We have to make people in the US aware of the consequences (of the Immigration Bill). Today, the India model supports 480 out of 500 Fortune companies. Anything that impacts us, also affects US companies. They (the US Government and industry) are gradually realising this,” Nasscom chief Som Mittal told Business Line .
Since it would take at least five months for the Bill to become law, there is time to work on it, Mittal added. The US is an important market for Indian IT companies as it accounts for 60 per cent of the $106-billion annual software exports.
Commerce Secretary S. R. Rao wrote to US Trade Representative Michael Froman earlier this month listing India’s concerns about the Bill, but is yet to get a reply.
The key worries
The provision in the Bill that India is fighting is one that restricts a company with over 15 per cent of its workforce on H-1B visas from placing H-1B workers at the offices of its clients.
Moreover, a company with more than half of its staff on such work permits will be barred from applying for more visas from 2016.
The Bill also proposes that workers on H-1B visas be paid higher salaries than what is stated under the current law and large companies hiring more than 50 per cent workers on H-1B be made to pay a steep fee of $10,000 per visa.
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