“We have got some of those papers, and we are requesting further information from our counterparts,” Mahendran said, according to LBO Online. The names of Sri Lankans in the papers are not yet clearly established, he added.

“I don’t want to jump to any conclusions, and we have to act responsibly.”

The authenticity of the documents will have to be established and a careful investigation will take place, said Mahendran speaking at a news conference on the economy.

The files leaked from a Panamanian law firm called Mossack Fonseca contain 40 years of data and include information on more than 210,000 companies in 21 offshore jurisdictions, from Panama to Hong Kong.

The files show how Mossack Fonseca clients were able to evade and avoid tax.

When asked whether around 1.9 billion dollars flows out of the country annually via illicit channels, Mahendran said he found those figures hard to believe.

“I find it difficult to believe that so much money has left the country. The errors and omissions in our balance of payments are a fraction of the numbers being bandied about.” (Colombo Gazette)