In the past, he managed to persuade middlemen (many of them Russian) to pay an illicit surcharge, direct to him, of around 25 cents a barrel.

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He estimated that the additional surcharge, and other direct tax initiatives, such as a withholding tax of 20% on profits distributed by unlisted companies to shareholders through a buyback of shares, would help the government raise a total of 133 billion rupees.

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Parera commended Mukherjee for sticking to the deadline of introducing a uniform goods and services tax by April 2010 and abolishing certain direct taxes--the fringe benefit tax, the commodities trading tax and the 10% surcharge on income tax.

FORBES: International