Stiffer penalties for complex corporate crime, an institutional structure that will make such crimes harder to commit and a regime to implement corporate governance that will be a halfway house between an oversight board and Sebi are some of the features of the report finalised by the Corporate Governance Committee.

The report is likely to be submitted to Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on Monday.

Headed by former Ambassador to the US, Naresh Chandra, the committee had several chartered accountants, representatives of financial institutions and industry bodies like CII and Ficci on it.

The report of the committee was to have been given in mid-November.

However, sources say differences on the jurisdiction of the proposed institutional structure delayed the report.

The recently created Serious Frauds Office might also find a place in the corporate governance structure.

Top government sources said it was impossible for government to prevent corporate crime.

Equally, it was not desirable to create new structures to check corporate crime for these could become a via media for another kind of inspector raj.

What the committee on corporate governance has done is 'half and half' with recommendations on punishments which go beyond even American laws on corporate crime like the Sarbanes Law.