NEW DELHI, November 2: The domestic software industry has expressed serious concern over a bill in the US congress which, if enacted, will adversely affect the country's exports there.

The bill, seeking to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act of the United States, will increase the financial and administrative costs of hiring Indian software professionals, according to the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom).

"The United States is the biggest market for country's software exports. The increased burden placed on a US company when hiring a Indian professional will hamper the free flow of software trade between the country and the US," nasscom executive director Dewang Mehta said.

In the event of the proposed bill (HR 119) being made into a law, the projected software export of one billion dollars to the United States is expected to be hit sharply.

"The bill is discriminatory in nature as it tries to differentiate between an Indian and US employee. The country's competitive advantage in software will be stifled by these kind of non-tariff barriers being put up by developed countries," Mehta said.

The bill seeks to split the existing H-1B visa programme into two categories, dependent and non-dependent H-1B employers. A dependent employer is defined as one who has a work force composed of 10 per cent or more H-1B employees (foreign nationals).

If the bill is enacted, a dependent employer will have to shell out a special fee to a private fund if he wants to hire a foreign national.The private fund will be dedicated to increasing competitiveness of US workers and reducing the dependency on hiring foreign nationals in the industry.

The fee will be based on a percentage of the workers compensation and will increase from year to year.

In addition, the bill seeks to require a dependent employer to demonstrate that he had taken or will take "timely, significant and effective" steps to recruit and retain US workers to lessen his dependence on foreign nationals.Career development programmes for the US employees are also mandated.

The employer will have to demonstrate that the above steps have lessened his dependence on the foreign workers by proving that his total number of the foreign employees decreased by at least 10 per cent for two consecutive years.

The bill also seeks to limit the maximum stay for H-1B visa holders from the current six years to three years.

The employer will be required to attest that he had not "in the last six months and would not for the next 90 days lay off or displace any US worker, following the hiring of a foreign national".

Though there has been an increase in the off-shore development in the last few years, 60 per cent of the country's total software exports to the US is still largely dependent on on-site development.

In the event of the bill being enacted, it will put a spoke in wheels of domestic software exports to the US as the delay in the issuance of visas and increased costs will make US firms think twice before hiring foreign software professionals, Mehta said.

Nasscom is actively lobbying associations in the US to stall the enactment of the bill, Mehta said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.