"The deferment of the deadline for the submission of the report has come as a surprise," said insurance sources in Delhi adding that now it may not be possible for the government to pass the bill during the current session of the Parliament.

"Now one expects the next session of Parliament to take up the bill," said sources.

The bill was referred to the 35-member committee, headed by Murli Deora, during the winter session of Parliament. Among the members of the committee are two former finance ministers P Chidambaram and Manmohan Singh.

It was expected that the committee will submit the report to the Lok Sabha detailing the final structure of the bill for the approval of the Lower House during the budget session of Parliament.

The delay in preparing the report is attributed to the fact that the committee has not been able to decide on the equity structure for the joint ventures.

The committee is understood to be in favour of scrapping the 14 per cent reservation for foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and overseas corporate bodies (OCBs).

As foreign participation has to be limited to 26 per cent the committee is faced with the dilemma of providing a 74 per cent stake to Indian companies.

The committee is of the opinion that not many domestic companies will be able to raise 74 per cent of the equity to start a joint venture. The committee is also not certain as to how the Indian partners will provide additional capital to support the venture as business grows.

Going by the solvency requirements, both the partners are required to contribute to the growing capital requirements as the business grows.