Finance minister apologizes for saying that Vietnamese salespeople do not pay taxes

Czech Finance Minister Andrej Babiš has apologized on Twitter and Facebook for his recent statement that Vietnamese owners of grocery shops "do not pay taxes, as is well known." I have been given to understand that there are Vietnamese who do pay taxes and I apologize if I offended their feelings, Mr. Babiš wrote in a statement on social networks. The apology was demanded by the Czech-Vietnamese Society, which argued that a vast majority of Vietnamese entrepreneurs pay their taxes and that the finance minister's statement was an unacceptable generalisation. The finance minister mentioned Vietnamese salesmen when defending the introduction of the planned online registration of sales during a question-and-answer session in the lower house. “Online registration of sales will apply to restaurants and retail, to brick-and-mortar shops and also to the Vietnamese who, as is well known, do not pay taxes,” Babiš said.