Pretoria – Parliament’s trade and industry portfolio committee on Tuesday heard that around 270 000 companies applied for essential service certificates during level 5 of the national lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus in South Africa.
To date, approximately 440 000 companies have applied and received their essential service certificates for levels 5 and 4 of the lockdown. The Department of Small Business Development and municipalities were advised to handle other business types. The NCR told the meeting that it had issued circulars on extension of business for credit providers, debt counsellors and credit bureaus with regard to the submission of statutory reports and other functions to be performed by debt counsellors.
It will further conduct raids in smaller towns, townships and rural areas for illegal collection methods, such as the retention of bank cards, Sassa cards and ID books, and analyse the performance of loan books of credit providers to monitor the impact of Covid-19 on consumers.