White House must intervene on Immigration Bill: Som Mittal
Talking about the impact of the Immigration Bill, Som Mittal, president, Indian IT Body Nasscom says as per the US process, there are many places where intervention can happen from the administration and the White House on matters of strategic importance.
June 25, 2013 / 11:22 IST
Visa worries continue to haunt Indian IT companies. Talking about the impact of the Immigration Bill, Som Mittal, president, Nasscom says as per the US process, there are many places where intervention can happen from the administration and the White House on matters of strategic importance.
Below is an edited transcript of his interview with CNBC-TV18Q: In today's joint presser, foreign minister Salman Khurshid said that there were assurances from the United States (US) side on taking up Indian concerns related to the Immigration Bill. Does this assurance really mean anything? Can Obama administration help Indian IT companies?A: We are really grateful to the minister for having taken up this issue. It is of strategic importance and we do give importance to what secretary Kerry said.The bill is currently at the senate floor and on the other hand, the house is drafting its own bill. Secretary Kerry himself has been a senator and he knows the process of bill making and I am sure he is going to weigh-in with the judiciary committee and others who are responsible for this bill. As per the US process, there are many places where intervention can happen from the administration and the White House on matters of strategic importance. The fact that this was a topic on day one itself of secretary Kerry's visit, I think shows the significance Indian government and the Indian industry gives to this. I am quite hopeful that the deliberations on this topic here would have influenced senator Kerry. I do believe that at various other forums, the industry has expressed their concerns from this and as he goes back he would be able to intervene.Q: Can you give us a sense of the impact? If indeed this bill goes through as is, how much of a hit it is going to be for Indian IT companies because the business model as it currently exists today I would imagine will have to see a drastic change?A: The current restrictions can be categorised in two or three areas. The most dramatic one is where it prevents for visa-dependent companies, which is at a very low level of 15 percent of our staff being on visas from being able to assign anybody at customer sight or even being able to have them work on customer contracts, which is basically saying that anybody that we send to US will not able to work on those. Similarly, there are many conditions on displacement where we have to give an assurance that for 180 days our customers did not displace anybody before or after the contract, which is very onerous and I don’t think the US companies can do that and there are series of other ones, which are restrictions on audits, put very onerous task on us. It is also discriminatory, in terms of the wages we have to pay and also the visa fee. So, there are a huge number of these concerns that we have, but some are complete showstoppers, the other is what impact the competitiveness of ours and hence the cost that would be to our customers as well.Q: You also said that US-India trade can be impacted if this Bill goes through. Is going to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) an option given the fact that immigration laws are not covered under the WTO? So, what recourse if at all any does India have? A: I don’t think we have to go – WTO is a point where you go last as a resort. It is clearly going to be impacting Indo-US trade and as you know India itself has been open on its trade. Today over 70 percent of the Indian domestic industry is with the US corporations. So, even before we start addressing WTO issues on a bilateral basis itself this should be taken care of because when you start putting restrictions on one side then there are restrictions that start coming in from the other side as well and that is what leads to trade wars. However, I don’t think we need to go as far because today US companies, US corporations, our clients are also raising the same issue with the house and senators. So, we do hope that in the larger interest of US economy these provisions would not be there and would be taken off. Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
