India seeks reduction in professional visa fees

Bangalore: India has finally put its concentration towards rigorous U.S. visa regime as hike in professional visa fees by the Obama administration is hurting interests of Indians who want to do business there. Hence it has decided to issue another warning to the United States on the non-compatibility of the hike fees and imposition of additional import taxes on government purchases with World Trade Organization rules, reports Amiti Sen for ET. The issue will be taken to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk by Commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma later this week. Today it is not easy for any Indian to see its own stores or restaurants doing business in U.S. The fee hike is expected to cost Indian companies, mainly IT outsourcing firms, about $200 million annually and India cannot afford to keep numb on an issue that hurts its commercial interests. This will definitely hurt the different acquisitions made by Indian companies in U.S. and is bound to impact the economy of India indirectly. Companies like Infosys and Wipro were the most affected by this announcement. The blunder created by Infosys relating H-1B and L1 now has to paid by every firm and business venture in years. Under the Emergency Border Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2010 -- popularly called the Border Security Bill -- the U.S. has hiked the fee for certain categories of H-1B and L1 visas by at least $2,000 for the next five years (2015). It imposed an additional import duty of 2 percent on all government purchases from countries like India that are not part of the government procurement agreement (GPA) of the WTO. Only a handful of members are in the GPA including the EU, Japan, Switzerland, China, South Korea and Iceland.