A decision to disband the Tax Advisory Group (TAG), which was established by the Scottish Government to give advice on tax policy, has been criticised as “deeply worrying”.
The group was set up three years ago with the aim of benefiting from the shared wisdom of academics, economists and key figures from business and the third sector.
It was part of Holyrood’s medium-term financial strategy and could count the likes of Institute for Fiscal Studies economist Stuart Adam and Fraser of Allander Institute director Mairi Spowage among its members.
Following its launch, the plan was to settle into a schedule of four meetings a year “for the remainder of the Parliamentary term” after the 2024/25 Budget.
TAG’s most recent meeting was held in February, however minutes from the gathering published this week revealed this was the last one.
The Finance Secretary at the timed, Fiona Robison, noted that this would be the final TAG meeting.
The decision was labelled “deeply worrying” by the Scottish Conservatives.
Finance spokesman Craig Hoy said: “John Swinney was clearly ignoring the warnings from business leaders and economists that continually hiking taxes kills growth, but now his government have stopped listening to them altogether.
“This is a deeply worrying sign for hard-pressed Scots, who are already being clobbered by sky-high SNP taxes.”
Scottish Labour finance spokesperson Michael Marra said: “When it comes to crucial tax policy the SNP have had enough of experts. Although in reality, they never bothered listening in the first place.
“Key tax decisions were taken without any discussion with this group that was assembled at taxpayers’ expense, and the expert members were just waiting for the SNP to seize the chance to kill it.
“The fact that the new Cabinet Secretary for Finance had never heard of the group when I asked her about it in Parliament told us where things were headed.
“It’s not that the SNP do not need expert advice on tax, they just do not want to be constrained by any as they scramble to have hard pushed taxpayers plug the £5bn black hole ministers have created in our public finances.”
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