New Delhi, Jan. 21 -- What was meant to be a quick and compliance-friendly boost for small businesses under the September goods and services (GST) recast has turned out to be a damp squib for some early adopters.

Starting 1 November, the Centre introduced a special-category GST registration to simplify compliance for small businesses, allowing eligible taxpayers with monthly business-to-business (B2B) output GST below Rs.2.5 lakh to opt for a fully electronic process through Rules 9A and 14A. Small businesses can now register within three days, compared with the longer, document-heavy process they faced earlier.

However, businesses that registered using the simplified process now face a new operational challenge-the GST portal blocks th...