The Indian offshore industry on Tuesday termed as “protectionist” a new US Bill that attempts to make American companies moving call centre jobs overseas, ineligible for Federal loans or grants for five years.
Apart from blocking Federal grants and loan guarantees to such companies, the proposed legislation also stipulates that offshore call centre employees will have to disclose their location to American callers. Moreover, callers will have the option of asking the call centre agents to transfer them back to a US call centre.
But BPO industry veteran and non-executive Vice-Chairman of Genpact, Mr Pramod Bhasin, said he was not overtly worried as such Bills come up all the time and many are not passed. “I would not worry too much because with the US elections around the corner, there will be a lot of noise,” he said.
The US Call Centre and Consumer Protection Bill, if enacted, could cripple the call centre model in low-cost offshore locations such as India and the Philippines. But, the Indian outsourcing industry maintains that umpteen such Bills are introduced in the US but not eventually passed. Even where they are, it is only after a lengthy passage through the House of Representatives and the Senate.
According to the reports emanating from the US, the Bill also requires the list of companies that offshore call centre work to be made available to the public. It also requires notification to Secretary of Labour 120 days before any offshore move is made.
“The provisions are fairly protectionist. But it has just been introduced and there is still a long time for it to become a law, if it becomes a law….Many Bills are introduced in the House and the Senate but only a small percentage of them actually sail through,” said the Nasscom Vice-President, Mr Ameet Nivsarkar.
The Bill was recently introduced by Rep Tim Bishop and Rep David McKinley in the House of Representatives and has a strong backing from the Communications Workers of America – a union which represents 1,50,000 call centre workers in the US.
“We have no problem disclosing the location…in fact most agents do it even today when asked. But the provision on call transfer (back to the US) is a red herring…The question is whether or not American companies are willing to pay extra, for transfer of calls to US locations,” Mr Bhasin said. India's IT and BPO export revenue is estimated to grow 16 to 18 per cent in 2011-2012 to $68-70 billion.