FINANCE Secretary John Swinney has been accused of not being able to count after claiming Scotland contributes more to the UK Treasury than it gets in return despite figures showing it was in the red by at least £10.7 billion last year.
The Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) figures, published yesterday, showed public spending at £63.8bn, with tax revenues of £53.1bn.
Mr Swinney maintained the breakdown showed Scotland generated 9.6% of UK revenues with 8.4% of the population and that with control of oil and gas revenues they underlined "the opportunities of independence and financial responsibility".
Labour, Tory and Liberal Democrat politicians claimed the report proved Scotland was better off within the UK.
In 2010-11, Scotland's estimated net fiscal balance was a deficit of £18.6bn when excluding North Sea revenue, a deficit of £17.9bn when including a per capita share of North Sea revenue, or a deficit of £10.7bn when a geographical share of North Sea revenue was included.
Mr Swinney said: "Scotland's oil and gas resources, a trillion- pound asset base, are worth more than 10 times Scotland's share of a UK debt built up by successive Westminster governments.
"With independence, we would control the fiscal levers we need to suit our own economic circumstances and maximise Scotland's potential to secure new investment and jobs."
Scottish Secretary Michael Moore said: "There is little point in the Scottish Government saying Scotland's finances are stronger than the UK's.
"That relies on a number of omissions and fails to take account of the interwoven nature of the UK's spending."
Labour finance spokesman Ken Macintosh said: "The report shows, if the SNP get their way, Scotland would have to raise taxes, cut public services, or borrow more at a higher rate."
Tory spokesman Gavin Brown said the SNP must explain how they'd "plug the gap" between revenue and expenditure.
LibDem leader Willie Rennie said Mr Swinney's interpretation of the figures meant he "either can't add up or he's deliberately misleading".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article