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Cape Town - The contentious draft licensing of businesses bill will be "significantly different" when it goes back to Cabinet, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said on Wednesday.
What would remain in place, however, was its focus on stamping out South Africa's "significant illicit economy", he told reporters at Parliament in Cape Town.
Speaking ahead of debate on his department's budget vote in the National Assembly, Davies said the bill sought to establish a model to deal with this.
"We have a significant illicit economy in this country which is damaging to the prospects of small business operators, particularly those in townships.
"This is the economy of illegal imports and trade in sub-standard products. This is the economy of people that don't pay VAT and all that, and they then compete unfairly with people that do observe all these requirements."
Although existing laws and regulations dealt with some of these matters, his department was finding that as fast as these were raided and shut down, they popped up again. "You raid somewhere, two weeks later something else pops up."
Davies said it was never government's intention to saddle business with "an onerous registration process".
With the involvement and co-operation of municipalities, the department wanted to establish a "negative" database of people found to be transgressing.
Davies conceded the current draft bill was "a bit too blunt", but said it was essential that "big transgressors" involved in the sale of illegal goods incurred "some penalty to exclude [them] from business operations in South Africa".
This required a judicial process.
"We've got a top team now that's beginning to work on the details of this piece of legislation. When we put it back it will be a significantly improved product to the one we've got now," he said.
The licensing bill has been sharply criticised by local business, which said it will be onerous, and overwhelm small and medium businesses in red tape and paperwork.
