Govt open to further reforms, plans to invest Rs 1 lakh crore in infrastructure: Sitharaman

New Delhi, Dec 03: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said the government is open to further reforms for making India a more attractive investment destination.

The government has taken various steps, including reduction of corporate tax, she said at India-Sweden Business Summit in New Delhi.

"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.

She invited Swedish firms to invest in infrastructure development projects.

India plans to invest about Rs 1 lakh crore in infrastructure sector in the next five years.

The Indian economy expanded by 5 per cent in April-June, its slowest annual pace since 2013 and the projections are that it may have slowed down further in the second quarter, making six consecutive quarters of slowing growth, a first since 2012.

This despite a recent series of fiscal stimulus, including a reduction in corporate tax rates.

Sitharaman blamed the fall in GDP growth in the last two financial years to the lagged effect of twin balance sheet crisis of stress on banks due to non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans on the one hand and heavily indebted corporates on the other, resulting from the UPA regime lending.