The momentum for outsourcing services business is positive and the 16-18 per cent growth estimates for IT exports from India in the current fiscal is achievable, industry body NASSCOM said on Thursday.

"The momentum is positive", President of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) Som Mittal said here.  "There will be all time concerns about deficit financing. Inflation by and large is not impacting this (IT exports) momentum and we continue to keep our guidance of 16-18 per cent", he told reporters on the sidelines of a function.

"I think it is achievable", he added. In January, the Indian IT industry went to the campuses and made about 1,50,000 recruitment offerings, Mittal said, adding that companies would not make such offerings if they were not confident about the business growth.

On the US visa issue, Mittal said the Indian IT industry was in dialogue with the US Embassy in New Delhi.  "They have accepted the (IT) business is complex and for them to identify what category of visas are going to be used, and for which area, needs to be clarified", he said.

"We have offered them certain guidelines that they could use as filters and we are working together with our industry on this", he said.  Mittal argued that in globalised services, people do not know the rules and guidelines that have been created by some countries, and which are old and subject to multiple interpretations.

"The practices that are being talked about today, there are multiple ways people could interpret it", he said.

"Even today we find that the interpretation of the same visa category in the US consulate is very different from the port of entry. What was acceptable yesterday and day before or last year is being questioned," he said.

Mittal added, "I think we are overplaying this whole visa issue."