Hyderabad: The hike in visa fee by US Congress will have a negative impact on Indian software and services companies, for which America is the biggest market, apex IT industry body Nasscom said on Friday.
The US Congress has doubled a special fee on the popular H-1B and L-1 visas, raising it to USD 4,500 to fund a 9/11 healthcare act and biometric tracking system.
"The impact is fairly high. But I guess the US has its own priorities. Nasscom believes this is very negative that they are doing because there is still fairly shortage of skills, especially in STEM - science, technology, engineering and mathematics (in USA).
"We had raised the issue with various forums in USA (about consequences of a visa hike)," Nasscom Chairman BVR Mohan Reddy said at a press conference here.
In a statement, Nasscom yesterday said the fee hike will rob American businesses of access to highly-skilled IT talent that they need.
Also, higher costs of hiring or contracting for IT services will force more US companies to consider moving IT operations overseas, thereby reducing American jobs and tax revenues.
Replying to a query on the impact on IT/ITES companies operating out of Chennai, which has been ravaged by floods, Reddy said the effect would be limited.
"Some working days were lost due to floods. There was one week of partial loss of work. But most of them are coming back to normalcy. Hope this is one time impact and everything will come to normal, Nasscom is not revising any number," he said.
Meanwhile, Hyderabad Software Exporters Association today announced plans for commemoration of its silver jubilee Year of Foundation (from Nov 2015 to Nov 2016).
