New Delhi: In what could bring some cheer to Indian IT professionals, the US federal government is believed not to be in favour of New Jersey's promulgation proposing to prevent government contracts from being outsourced.

Confirming the development, highly-placed sources in the Commerce Ministry, which oversee the issue at bilateral level, said the US federal government was not in favour of the New Jersey Bill.

Even as the Bill moved by Senator Shirley Turner in the New Jersey Senate has been put on hold till it meets again in May, US Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Zoellick is learnt to have sent a letter to Commerce Ministry conveying the US government's reservations on the Bill.

Considering the gravity of the problem, Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley had raised the issue with USTR at the recently-held mini-ministerial meeting of World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Tokyo.

If the move gains momentum and the Bill is passed by the Senate when it meets in May, Indian companies would be badly hit, as the Bill prohibits foreign call centres from executing state-awarded customer-support contracts. Four other US states are also considering similar Bills.

The Bill had come as a big blow for Indian IT industry, which has in recent times witnessed professionals being roughed up in various places, and the industry views it as "latent restriction".

PTI