The US is in touch with India to address its concerns over the hike in H1-B and L1 visa fee, which would adversely affect Indian IT companies. A senior US administration official said in Washington that they are in touch with the Indian Government and are trying as best to answer the questions about this new law. The official said there is no secret that the Indian government has expressed its concern about this new provision but Washington is not aware of India approaching the WTO on the issue. The Union Commerce and Industry Minister, Anand Sharma, had last week also written a letter to the US Trade Representative, Ron Kirk, in this regard. Under the 600 million US dollars border security bill signed into law by President Barack Obama, nearly 550 million dollars would be raised by increasing the fee in the categories of H-1B and L1 visas for the next five years, which would mostly impact Indian IT companies. Businesses in India and the US have termed this as discriminatory and said this would undermine the growing Indo-US economic relationship, with which the Obama Administration does not agree. Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, said last week that increase in the visa fee makes sense, but there is nothing in the bill that would have any adverse impact on the US-India relationship. In a related development, State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner said the move could have an adverse impact on Indian companies but exuded confidence that the long-term economic partnership with India would continue to deepen and strengthen.