New Delhi: The British proposal to collect £3,000 (Rs2.8 lakh) from Indian citizens for a six-month visa from November is ‘discriminatory’ and could adversely affect trade, tourism and people-to-people contact between the two countries, say industry associations and others.
“Suggested changes are not only discriminatory, they are against the ‘special relationship’ publicised by the UK government,” the Confederation of Indian Industry said. The new visa policy could also negatively impact India-EU free trade agreement negotiations, it said.
The David Cameron government is preparing to impose the deposit scheme on Indians and five other nationalities who it says may chose to stay on in the country illegally. In April 2011, the government had put a cap on work visas and a year later revised the student visa policy.
“Such blanket rules for visas will negatively affect not only businesses, it will also further bring down the number of students going to UK for higher studies and affect the tourism inflow from India to UK,” it added.
Indians constitute the second largest contingent of foreign students, numbering around 34,000. Around 500,000 Indians on average visit the UK every year.
IANS
