GSTs are seldom if ever 'good things'.
GSTs are the best form of tax as they are less distorting than all other taxes, especially when combined with credits for the poor. The best form of taxation is a broad range of taxes all kept to the lowest rate possible.
“The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing”
Jean Baptiste Colbert quotes (French Economist and Minister of Finance under King Louis XIV of France. 1619-1683)
Please elaborate on your use of the verb 'to distort' in this context.
I'm assuming that distortion is used in the economic sense as in 'changing behavior'.
In so far as a tax is imposed and people's pre-tax decisions are changed, a tax distorts behavior. If you put a tax on walnuts, and people eat less walnuts, then your walnut tax has distorted the walnut market.
By preventing economic activity that might otherwise have happened, or promoting economic activity in excess of what would have other wise have happened, it is theorized that inefficiencies are created in the economy and resources are misapplied. Now that walnuts are taxed, the optimal amount of walnuts is greater than demand, and beneficial exchanges don't happen
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