Reliance Industries terminates US lobbying

BGR has lobbied for RIL in the areas of 'domestic and foreign trade' and has provided "strategic counsel on issues related to trade", as per its lobbying disclosure reports.

In the first eight quarters of its lobbying activities (from 2009 to 2010) in the US, RIL had paid USD 190,000 every quarter, while the payments made to BGR later dropped to USD 120,000 in the last three quarters (between January to September 2011) when some lobbying work was done.

The Indian government has paid its lobbyist close to USD five million (about Rs 25 crore) since it began lobbying in the US in September 2005. It has paid USD 180,000 (about Rs one crore) every quarter to its lobbyist for more than two years now.

On behalf of the Indian government, BGR has lobbied at the US Senate, House of Representatives, US Trade Representative (USTR), Department of State and Department of Commerce in the area of bilateral relationship between the two countries, while its lobbying issues in the past have included the US-India civil nuclear deal.

In case of Nasscom, its main lobbying areas now include visa and employee immigration issues of various Indian IT companies, which have a significant market in the US.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2012, Nasscom paid USD 70,000 to BGR, while its other lobby firm Lande Group got USD 30,000 for this period. Similar amounts were paid to the two lobby groups in the previous two quarters

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