Firms 'to pay £150m more in rates' despite Holyrood's freeze claims

• Liz Cameron said the move is damaging competitiveness

The Scottish Chambers of Commerce (SCC) has calculated the government will reap a significant profit from a recent revaluation of business rates even though ministers said 60 per cent of firms had benefited from the changes or seen their costs remain the same.

Liz Cameron, chief executive of the SCC, says new figures showing that 25 out of Scotland's 32 local authorities will collect more in business rates in 2010-11 compared to 2009-10 "make a mockery" of the government's claims.

Businesses across the country have been at loggerheads with finance minister John Swinney since April when new "non domestic" rates were set.

Thousands of firms reported "immoral" hikes in their bills at a time when they are still struggling against an uncertain economic climate. In the most extreme cases, some saw bills jump by more than 200 per cent.

Enterprise groups believe that record numbers of firms contested their bills before last month's appeals deadline although official figures are not yet available.

The SCC is pressing the Scottish Government to reintroduce a scheme that sets a cap on increases in any one year. It claims firms south of the Border, where so-called "transitional relief" still exists, are being given an unfair advantage over their competitors in Scotland who have suddenly had to shoulder dramatic rises in their outgoings.

Ms Cameron said: "It has taken the Scottish Government eight months to finally admit that, as a result of its axing of transitional relief, Scottish businesses are this year paying more than 150m in additional business rates into government coffers.

"Far from making Scottish businesses better off, it is now clear that the government's decision to remove transitional relief is damaging the competitiveness of our economy."

Graham Birse, deputy chief executive of the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce accused the government of purposely using the indirect tax to help balance its books as it prepares for some of the most cut-throat public spending cuts in decades.

"This figure exposes what we suspected all along that this isn't about smoothing the way for vulnerable businesses but it's about increasing the tax take."

The SCC has based its calculations on official figures provided in response to a Parliamentary Question by Scottish Labour's enterprise spokesman, Lewis Macdonald. Mr Macdonald said: "The answers I have received prove that the SNP's myth that 60 per cent of businesses are better off following the recent rates revaluation is false.(They show] that 56 per cent of Scottish businesses face either an increase or no change in their liability, and only 44 per cent are better off."

Liberal Democrat finance spokesman Jeremy Purvis echoed calls for the reintroduction of transitional relief. "Businesses paying up to 200 per cent more in their rates tax bills under the SNP have been offered no support, while their English counterparts have," he said.

"The fact that the government expects to get a bumper increase in revenue from businesses struggling in the recession is Alex Salmond rubbing salt in the wounds."

The figures show that businesses in South Lanarkshire have been hardest hit, with a 44 per cent increase in rates paid, from 176.8m to 255.8m. Firms in Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire have also witnessed severe rises.

But the Scottish Government last night hit back at the claims, saying the SCC had "misinterpreted" the statistics.

A spokesman said: "The net impact of the 2010 revaluation, and our decision to set a relatively low poundage, means that 200m less is being collected this year. The provisional figures for 2010-11 overstate business rates income, as the majority of appeals will not be settled until later in the 2010 revaluation cycle. In 2009-10, a significant number of appeals from the 2005 revaluation were settled, reducing the income received in that year."