The Guptas are among prominent persons attempting to lobby President Jacob Zuma to reject a new law that will give banks the right to scrutinise the wealth of the politically connected.
They have also been using their media outlets to oppose the bill.
Proposed amendments to the Financial Intelligence Centre Act to deal with "domestic prominent influential persons" were passed by parliament in May - but the controversial bill has been gathering dust in Zuma's office for two months.
The bill comes as the government tightens the screws on corruption and money laundering.
It would allow even Zuma and his cabinet ministers, other politicians, judges and prominent business people to be interrogated about the source of their money before they enter into a business relationship with any financial institution.
Sources in the government said there were moves by some prominent persons to convince Zuma not to sign the bill because it would give banks powers to "settle political scores".
A senior government official, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "The bill has been with the president for some time and the Guptas have run to him to say that he must not sign. But the reality is that the president can only not sign if there is a constitutional objection."
Presidency spokesman Bongani Ngqulunga said Zuma was "still considering the bill".
The Guptas are being investigated amid allegations that they illegally channelled money out of the country.
Last month the Sunday Times established that the Reserve Bank and the Financial Intelligence Centre had asked the Bank of Baroda in India to provide documents on deposits into accounts belonging to the family.
The transactions are of concern to the government because the Baroda deposits do not move further locally, suggesting they are being shifted offshore, with Dubai being the most likely destination.
The bill also proposes freezing the assets of those suspected of terrorism.
Enoch Godongwana, an ANC national executive committee member and head of the subcommittee on economic transformation, said Zuma would be obliged to sign the amendment into law unless it could be proved that the changes might infringe citizens' constitutional rights.
"I am no legal guru, but the amendments are open to constitutional challenge in my view. But there is no way we cannot implement it."
Similar laws are being implemented in the UK, the US, Australia, Canada and Chile.
In these countries people affected are referred to as "politically exposed".
But since four major banks in South Africa closed accounts of companies linked to the Guptas, the family said they were being unfairly targeted and that the banks were abusing their powers. Last month the Gupta-owned TV station, ANN7, dedicated a slot in an interview with resident analyst Tshepo Kgadima, who called the bill "financial tyranny".
Kgadima wrote in the Gupta-owned newspaper, The New Age, that once the bill was signed, "tens of thousands of people and entities" would be declared "villains" and excluded from the global financial system.
There was no response to a Sunday Times e-mail request for comment from Oakbay.
Another senior government source said they had been made aware that the president was being lobbied not to approve the bill and that the major fear was that the banks would "bully" people as they had allegedly done recently to the Guptas.
But the chairman of the National Assembly's standing committee on finance, Yunus Carrim, said he was unaware of any lobbying and that all MPs in the committee had voted in favour of the bill. "This is not the committee's bill," he said.
The bill had been processed in the cabinet over three years .
He said provisions of the bill would also contribute to preventing the private sector abusing politicians. "I don't know of any MPs being lobbied," said Carrim.
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