Wipro may hike client billing rates

Wipro Technologies, the country’s third-largest software exporter, may increase billing rates of clients to mitigate the extra cost arising due to the hike in visa fee by the US government, a senior company official said on Tuesday.

“We will speak to our customers and seek price adjustments for the extra cost. We will work with them to see how to mitigate it,” said Wipro CFO Suresh Senapaty. He was speaking on the sidelines of a CII seminar.

He added that the US Border Security Bill, which lead to a hike in visa fees will have moderate impact in the current fiscal on the IT firm. However, there will be an impact next year, he said.

Notwithstanding the increased cost, he said that Wipro will continue to invest in the US.

“Our medium and long-term plan is to have more and more local hiring. So at some stage we should be able to mitigate the high visa cost,” he added. The Border Security Bill has increased the fee to about $4,500 per visa from $2,500.