Bangalore: UK government has recommended that Indian IT and other professionals who are transferred to Britain by their companies may not be able to apply for citizenship. The Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) Forum said that the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) had recommended that skilled professionals who come to Britain on 'intra-company transfer' rules should not be allowed to apply for British citizenship. Under the current rules, after five years of working in the UK on the intra-company transfer route or any other route under tier-II, it is possible to be granted permanent residence. In the wake of the allegation on Indian tech firms by several British trade lobbyists for misusing the 'intra-company-transfer' rules by replacing the UK workers at wages lower than prescribed levels in the country, UK government is set to evaluate immigration rules proposed by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC). Meanwhile, Indian IT workers in UK feel that such recommendations are not required. "Tier-II visas without the right to settlement will lead to exploitation of skilled professionals, who will have to pay taxes but will not be able to settle in the UK," said Amit Kapadia, Executive Director of the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) Forum in UK. UK, which is one of the top export markets for India's over $40-billion software industry, had granted around 45,766 work permits to workers coming to the country through intra-company-transfer route last year. The majority of intra company transfers were for Indian nationals, who account for 69 percent of the permits granted through this route. Almost half (48 percent) of intra-company transfers were for Indian nationals in just one occupation - software professionals. Top Indian tech firms including TCS, Infosys, Wipro and Tech Mahindra serve British customers such as BT, British Petroleum and British Airways by sending Indian professionals to the country on short-term project assignments. With more stringent norms, these companies may have to employ more local UK workers instead of sending their Indian staff for onsite projects. Ann Swain, Chief Executive, Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) said, "Companies are even allowed to pay these workers offshore in foreign currencies, so intra company transfers are potentially very easy to exploit in order to bring cheap foreign labour into the UK." The MAC report submitted by MAC's Chairman, Professor David Metcalf to UK's Home Secretary recommended that the threshold salary levels for allowing entry of a graduate skilled worker should be raised from around 17,000 British Pound currently, making it tougher to earn points needed for allocation of work permits. Metcalf said, "We believe that the earnings thresholds should rise in line with earnings inflation. We recommended to raise the minimum threshold for gaining 10 points to 24,000 British Pound per annum, and minimum threshold for gaining 15 points to 28,000 British Pound per annum." Nasscom, the Indian software industry lobby said that the recommendations would help in fixing the loopholes in the system. Som Mittal, President, Nasscom said, "The issue of salary, at least 20,000 British Pound a year as minimum wage for an employee going to the UK is also acceptable as less than 0.2 percent of the current ICT employees going to the UK are at a salary less than that. This measure has been put in place to check abuse," However, MAC's recommendations are pure advisory and the office of Home Secretary may or may not accept them. Chris Dix, Regional Director - South Asia and the Gulf, UK Border Agency said, "We need to remember that these are only recommendations at this stage and the government is considering the report before responding formally. Till now, no any decision has been taken, so it would be very early to speculate on the government's response."