India calls proposed visa legislation discriminatory

India today termed the US proposal to increase visa fees to fund its internal border security plan as discriminatory and said it will cost Indian firms $200 million extra a year.

“Though the need of the US government to strengthen their border security is understandable, it is inexplicable to our companies to bear the cost of such a highly discriminatory law,” Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said in a letter to US Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

Sharma said the Indian software industry is already deeply burdened in the absence of a Totalisation Agreement, requiring them to pay more than $1 billion every year to the US government in the form of social security, with no benefit or prospect of refund.