New US law may make outsourcing tough for MNCs [View All]

[OhioChick]

Source: Economic Times of India

1 Jun 2010, 0600 hrs IST,Pankaj Mishra,ET Bureau

BANGALORE: American lawmakers plan to make it less attractive for the country’s multinational giants IBM and GE to expand their workforce in cheaper locations such as India by taxing their income from international markets, and encourage job creation by renewing several expired tax breaks for local R&D.

Last week, the House of Representatives approved the ‘American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act’ on a 215-204 vote, clearing the way for the US Senate to hold final discussions in June. At a time when the unemployment rates in the US are hovering around 9.9%, lawmakers are under tremendous pressure to act against the companies seen as creating jobs overseas even as they lay off workers in the country.

“In this legislation, which is job creating, it closes the loophole which has allowed businesses to ship jobs overseas. Can you believe that we have a tax policy that enables outsourcing? So, if you have one thing to say about this bill to your constituents, you can say that today, you voted to close the loophole to ship US jobs overseas and giving businesses a tax break to do so,” House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi told the lawmakers before the voting process started on Friday last week. “It is not right. It will be corrected today.”

The proposal, expected to cost nearly $112 billion, will be discussed by the Senate during week of June 7 after Congress’ Memorial Day recess.

However, India’s $60-billion outsourcing sector, which counts GE and Citigroup among its top customers, does not see any direct impact.


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