Maintaining accounts in foreign countries by Sri Lankans is not an offence: Cabinet spokesman

7 October 2021 09:02 am Views - 166

By Sandun A Jayasekera  

Co-Cabinet Spokesman, Plantation Minister Dr. Ramesh Pathirana responding to a journalist admitted that maintaining accounts in foreign countries by Sri Lankans was not an offence.  

“What is important is that how he or she has earned it and whether the source of the deposit originates from any ill lucre or whether it has  been  earned illegally,” Minister Dr. Pathirana stressed.  The two famous Sri Lankan tycoons mentioned in the Pandora Papers were free to consider to bring their millions of undisclosed dollars stashed in overseas banks to Sri Lanka using the tax amnesty declared recently by the government to attract the same, Minister Dr. Pathirana pointed out.