NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that the Narendra Modi government is open to further reforms and the country is aiming to invest about Rs 1 lakh crores in the infrastructure sector in the next five years.
Speaking at the India-Sweden Business Summit here, she said that the government has taken various steps, including the reduction of corporate tax. In the biggest rate cut, the Centre slashed the corporate tax rate by almost 10 per cent points in order to boost the economy.
The finance minister invited the Swedish firms to invest in infrastructure development projects in India, saying: “I only can invite and assure that the Government of India is committed to further reforms in various sectors whether it is banking, mining or insurance and so on. India plans to invest about Rs 1 lakh crore in the infrastructure sector in the next five years.”
She also said that the government is also open to further reforms for making India a more attractive investment destination and invited Swedish firms to invest in infrastructure development projects. "We are going through a phase of responding to challenges the Indian industries are facing. Before budget 2020, we took a call that the fiscal rewarding step which we had to project didn’t have to wait," she said adding the corporate tax rate cut was done between the two budgets.
She said that the government is open to further reforms for making India a more attractive investment destination. "I only can invite and assure that the Government of India is committed for further reforms in various sectors whether it is banking, mining or insurance and so on," she said.
Earlier, the minister had said that the corporate tax reduction is aimed at attracting fresh investment and generating jobs and that "green shoots" are already visible with several foreign as well as domestic firms showing interest to invest.In the past few months, the government has announced a slew of measures including corporate rate tax cut and ease in liquidity for Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFC). However, so far the economy has not yet shown signs of any revival.
The GDP growth rate for the July-September quarter declined to 4.5 per cent, the lowest growth rate in six years. Although the Minister told the Rajya Sabha last month that the economy is going through a slowdown, she added that the situation is not recessionary at all.
Talking of the prospects, India provides to businesses, Sitharaman said that India has great prospects with a large middle-class population and huge consumption.
(With inputs from agencies)