The abolition of the Uniform Business rate cost Scottish businesses an extra £900m since 2000, SNP leader Alex Salmond claimed yesterday.
Speaking at the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) ‘Scotland
Question Time’ debate in Edinburgh last night, Salmond said that
figures acquired following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to
the Local Government Finance Division of the Finance and Central
Services Department showed that the decision to abolish the Uniform
Business rate, made by First Minister Jack McConnell when he was
Finance Minister, cost Scottish businesses an extra £900m between
2000-01 and 2006-07.
The FOI response stated that: "If there had
been a uniform business rate with England approximately £900m less NDRI
would have been collected over the period 2000-01 and 2006-07."
Salmond
said: "The SNP wants Scotland's small businesses to be freed from the
burden of business rates so they are free to grow and provide more and
better paid jobs in local communities.
"Yet under Mr McConnell's
stewardship they have been disadvantaged because of his decision as
Finance Minister to make them pay more in business rates than business
south of the Border.
"By imposing a rate poundage on Scottish
business 10.1 per cent higher than south of the Border, the current
Scottish Executive has added to the burdens on Scottish business and
held back Scottish economic growth.
"The SNP are determined to
support the small business sector which has been let down under the
current administration. Small businesses have traditionally been
important to the economy for a variety of reasons:
as a source of
entrepreneurship and innovation; a driver of competition and local
economic vibrancy; and as a mechanism for job creation.
"That's
why we will implement our Small Business Bonus scheme which is designed
to target small businesses, and deliver meaningful help to them, while
at the same time benefiting the wider economy.
"Under our
proposals 3 out of 4 businesses will be better off: 120,000 businesses
in Scotland will have their business rates abolished and a further
30,000 businesses will have their rates significantly reduced as a
result of the scheme.”
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