A FRESH row over the SNP's controversial local income tax plans broke out last night as the final days of campaigning in the Glasgow East by-election began.
Armed Forces Minister Bob Ainsworth claimed the plans to scrap council tax and replace it with a 3p in the pound local tax would hit soldiers hard as their bills were currently subsidised.
A Private currently charged £33 a year in council tax woul
d have to pay £600, Ainsworth said. A Navy commander currently paying just £113 would end up paying £2,294, he added.
But the SNP hit back, describing Ainsworth's claims as "inaccurate", "unfortunate" and "absurd".
The row is the latest to hit the SNP over its LIT proposals, which were also attacked last week by business leaders, union chiefs and local authorities.
In a letter to Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney, Ainsworth said: "I have extremely serious concerns over the replacement of council tax with a local income tax and the damaging impact it would have on Service and Ministry of Defence civilian personnel, especially younger and lower paid personnel."
Servicemen and women currently have their council tax paid by the MoD, which takes a deduction from their pay by way of a contribution.
The MoD said if the income tax were introduced it would lead to Scottish soldiers having to pay higher amounts. Ainsworth also drew a comparison to the Poll Tax, saying the costs of administering the new tax would be huge, and claiming that the new tax was "more unfair".
"We have approximately 13,000 service personnel based in Scotland with approximately 4,500 moves into and out of Scotland in each year," Ainsworth added.
"We cannot quantify the cost of necessary changes to our payroll system without details of the system you are proposing to introduce. But it should be compared with the introduction of the Poll Tax, which required the establishment of a new administrative team.
"The money required to fund this new bureaucratic overhead would reduce the resources we can get to front line to support our armed forces," he said.
In his letter, he concluded: "It is hard to express how badly this would hit the morale of Scottish troops who would know that they are receiving a lower allowance because of the local income tax you proposed to take. They would undoubtedly feel undermined by the impact of your policy."
Ainsworth's comments met a blunt response last night.
A spokesman for Swinney said: "Given the many failures by the Ministry of Defence to look after the welfare of our soldiers and veterans, this inaccurate attack on our fair local income tax proposals is particularly unfortunate and absurd.
"The Scottish Government's absolute commitment to helping our armed forces personnel and their families and Scotland's veteran community was demonstrated by the measures we announced last week to boost their entitlement in health and social care, education and training, transport and housing.
"In a number of respects, these go further than provision south of the border. We will consider all the responses to our consultation, and bring forward our detailed proposals in due course for Scotland's Parliament to decide – not the MoD."
Scottish Government ministers also point to research which shows that the public are in favour of a local income tax.
The CBI, Institute of Directors, National Union of Students, STUC, Unison and Glasgow City Council are among those who responded negatively to a Scottish Government consultation.
Last week, the Federation of Small Businesses said the income-based charge would cripple its members and undermine Scotland's ability to compete with England.
