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Statistics show increase in council tax collection in Scotland |
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Wednesday, 25 June 2008 |
A National Statistics publication published today reports that in 2007-08 the total amount of Council Tax billed (excluding Council Tax Benefit) in Scotland was £1.94bn, of which £1.829bn was collected by 31 March 2008.
The provisional Scotland total for in-year Council Tax collection rate for 2007-08 was 94.2 per cent, a 0.4 percentage point increase from the previous year. Between 1993-94 and 2007-08, the overall total amount of Council Tax billed in Scotland was £20.416bn, of which £19.552bn, or 95.8 per cent was collected by 31 March 2008.
The provisional in-year Council Tax collection rates for individual councils in 2007-08 ranged from 88.0 per cent (Glasgow City Council) to 97.7 per cent (Orkney Islands Council).
These provisional figures suggest that 25 out of 32 councils have improved on their 2006-07 in-year Council Tax collection rate figures published by Audit Scotland. Three councils showed the same collection rate, and four councils showed slight decreases, while remaining above the Scotland average.
Commenting on the publication of the latest figures, Councillor Graeme Morrice, COSLA's finance spokesman, said: "I very much welcome the fact that yet again councils throughout Scotland have made a further improvement in their council tax collection rates.
"Every year since devolution we have seen an increase in collection rates - and the latest in-year collection of 94.2 per cent is a fabulous effort.
"Councils are fully committed to collecting Council Tax as they realise that every pound collected is a pound for vital frontline services.
"Councils will once more endeavour to build on this success next year but, as we move towards 100 per cent, it obviously becomes more difficult as we are moving towards a section of the community that go out of their way not to pay council tax.”
He added: "All too often in the past, despite our success, councils have been blamed for not collecting outstanding debt but lets be clear it is not uncollected it is unpaid and there is a massive difference between the two. Those who refuse to pay are doing a grave disservice to others in the community who accept their responsibility to pay their council tax for the wide range of services they receive."
Labour's Public Services spokesperson Andy Kerr said: "Councils need to collect the Council Tax more effectively than they are currently but the improvement they have made in this round of figures is very welcome.
“However, a move to a local income tax that the SNP propose would put that in jeopardy. The levels of avoidance and evasion are likely to be greatly increased and could bring us back to the days of the poll tax where huge numbers of people were not paying any local tax.
"John Swinney needs to reconsider his half-baked plans on LIT and admit that his figures on public finance just don't add up."
Derek Brownlee, the Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance & Sustainable Growth, said: “These figures demonstrate a further in-year improvement to Council Tax collection, and on previous trends the final rate will be higher still. There remains scope to further improve collection rates, and Councils could use the proceeds of better collection to cut the level of Council Tax.
“These figures should sound alarm bells in the Scottish Government - there is no guarantee that similar levels of collection could be achieved under a ‘Local’ Income Tax, particularly if Councils operate different rates throughout the country.
“These figures are a further reminder that the Government should focus on reforming and reducing the Council Tax, not introducing a new and unwanted tax on earnings. The SNP is showing that Council Tax can work.”
Full details of the collection figures can be found here.
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