US BAN ON OUTSOURCING WILL NOT HELP FREE-TRADE: SATYAM

The US Senate's decision to ban outsourcing by American companies would not have any great impact on Indian IT companies, but such moves would certainly go against the global free trade policy, IT major Satyam Computer Services Ltd said on Saturday.

"Though the current move by the US senate to bar offshoring of government works will not have a great impact on Indian IT companies, it does not augur well for their own economy. Such decisions do not help in moving towards a free-trade policy envisaged by the WTO," Satyam Chairman B Ramalinga Raju said in a statement here.

Satyam Computers, the New York Stock Exchange-listed company, has a major chunk of its software revenues coming from the United States.

"The Senate Bill is yet to be passed as law and we hope the United States government takes a more pragmatic view and does not get pressurised by political considerations," Raju said. The US Senate passed a law barring American companies from sub-contracting the government jobs to the companies outside the US.

The legal measure, originally sponsored by Republican Senator from Ohio George Voinovich and others, was included in a $328-billion spending bill passed by the Senate.