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.