TCS hikes billing rates to counter rising rupee

Mumbai-based leading IT services provider Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has raised its billing rates by 3-4 per cent for existing clients and by 5 per cent for new clients in the wake of rising wages and the rupee appreciation against the dollar, according to a top official of the company.

The announcement comes just a week after another Indian IT giant Infosys said it planned to raise its billing rates by 2-3 per cent for existing clients. The rupee has risen by 7 per cent against the US dollar in the last five months.

For TCS, the current quarter has been stable. "We have a healthy hedging strategy. The current quarter has been stable despite the rupee appreciation. We have a healthy pipeline. The deal momentum is strong," N Chandrashekharan, who was elevated as TCS' COO on Thursday, told reporters on the sidelines of the Nasscom Quality Summit on Friday here.

He said the company, which earns a significant part of the revenue from the US, was not impacted by the subprime crisis.

"We will continue to monitor the fallout of the subprime very closely. Having said that, we don't see any impact," he added.

Chandrashekharan pointed out that the company's financial services business was growing. "The financial services business is healthy .... It is on a growth curve," he pointed out.

TCS plans to open another development centre by the end of the current financial year in China. The company has development centres in Beijing and Hangzhou.

It plans to raise the staff strength in China to 5,000 by 2010 from the existing 1,000.

"We are looking for outsourcing deals from domestic Chinese companies and MNCs, which have presence in that country," he said.