B. Hareram, Principal Commissioner of Central Excise and Service Tax Visakhapatnam, has said GST is a revolutionary tax reform and will bring much of the informal sector into the formal sector.

He was speaking at an awareness programme on ‘Demonstration and filing of GST return for MSME Sector’ organised by AP Chambers of Commerce and Industry Federation (APCCIF) in association with Visakhapatnam Central GST Commissionerate here on Tuesday.

He exhorted that honest people will have nothing to fear from the new tax regime, but “the dishonest will be made to pay”.

According to him, the effects of GST would be mostly positive, such as increase in GDP growth rate and goods becoming cheaper. But he also added that the possibility of inflation going up marginally could not be ruled out.

G. Sambasiva Rao, president of AP Chambers of Commerce and Industry Federation, said though there could be certain teething trouble, they can be overcome.

“Instead of dealing with so many government agencies, now we have only one agency which is GST to deal with,” he said.

F A Cooper, Superintendent Central Excise, explained about GST filing and the process of registration and the online payment of tax and briefed the transition provisions and the input tax credit during the transition period from the current system to GST.