By IRNA,
New Delhi : Large number of Indian Information Technology (IT) professionals Friday opposed protectionism measures of US President, Barack Obama.
Talking to IRNA they urged Obama Administration not to deny tax incentives to those US companies which create jobs overseas in places like India as experience in the past has shown that outsourcing country has been the biggest beneficiary of outsourcing jobs overseas.
“US President Barack Obama’s move to end tax incentives for US companies that ship jobs to countries like India will neither benefit the US nor its corporate sector”, said Syed Aabshar Askari, an IT professional.
Adding that this new policy is not going to benefit anyone, neither the outsourcing companies nor the country the job is outsourced to.
He further said: “The cost saved in outsourcing is higher than that saved by tax exemption. If the proposal is pushed through, it will hit business coming India’s way and many Indians would lose their jobs”.
“Obama’s latest move was expected, but unwelcome at a time when Bangalore’s IT and BPO sectors are already reeling under the global economic meltdown”, said Mohammad Jaane Alam, IT professional working with TCS company in New Delhi.
IT and BPO companies in India have already suffered due to the slowdown. A lot of people have lost jobs. Obama’s latest move will cause more problems, Jaane Alam added.
Meanwhile, Syed Altamash Askari, IT professional, working with Solution Partner in Auckland while talking with IRNA on phone said: “It is like a disguised move to try and create jobs in US itself. But again one needs enough people, not only enough people but people fit for the jobs, to fill those jobs in US.
But on the other hand it gives India a better chance and opportunity to exploit their talent and use it for developing its own nation, he said.
“Every thing has got both positive and negative aspects associated with it”, said Altamash.
India should better focus on grabbing this opportunity in a positive way and work on the betterment of its own future and infrastructure instead of cribbing about people loosing jobs, which is the negative aspect of this move, he added.
Shabih Zehra, another IT professional while towing the line of Altamash Askari said that President Obama’s protectionist moves unlikely to affect Indian business and jobs.
“US is going through a deep recession, the steps taken to rewrite their tax code is understandable” she added.
While expressing similar views, Syed Sharib Zaidi, an IT professional working with Macmillan company in New Delhi was candid in his disapproval of the American policies describing them as retrograde and protectionist.
He said, “This is a necessary move. This is not about India, or the global economy at large. It’s about the United States and its citizenry, so that it can recover the thousands of jobs that have been lost to outsourcing.”
The US President Barack Obama had unveiled new proposals on Monday to end tax breaks for American companies that shipped jobs overseas to countries like India.
American IT companies that have set up offices in Bangalore include Accenture, Microsoft, Amazon, AOL, Cisco, Dell, IBM and Intel.
An estimated 600,000 people are employed in Bangalore’s software and outsourcing sectors.
Industry professionals say many could lose their jobs following Obama’s latest move.
In general, a service which costs around $ 58 per seat per hour in the US is accomplished at $ 25-27 per seat per hour in India.
So, US companies save almost 75 per cent by outsourcing their activities to India.