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.
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.