Alex Salmond defends ban on poll tax debt collection
The debts date back to the introduction of the poll tax in Scotland in 1989
Alex Salmond has defended the Scottish government's decision to stop councils pursuing people for poll tax debts.
The first minister announced plans to block collection of the debts at Holyrood on Thursday.Critics have dubbed the move a "tax-dodger's charter", with some people who paid the tax asking whether they should now be eligible for a rebate.
But Mr Salmond told BBC Scotland it was wrong to "hound" people for something that happened 25 years ago.
The unpopular poll tax - officially known as the community charge - was introduced by the Conservative government in Scotland in 1989, a year ahead of the rest of the UK, sparking a mass campaign of non-payment. It was replaced by the council tax four years later.
Local authority body Cosla has said that £425m of poll tax debt remains outstanding in Scotland, with some £396,000 having being collected last year.
Some councils - including Aberdeenshire, which covers Mr Salmond's constituency - had said they intended to cross-check the names of people who registered to vote for the first time ahead of the independence referendum to see if they had outstanding tax bills.
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Poll tax in Scotland
1989
Introduced in Scotland
1993
Replaced by council tax-
£425m Total uncollected poll tax debt
-
£1.3m Poll tax debt collected in 2009-10
-
£396,000 Poll tax debt collected in 2013
Mr Salmond phoned in to BBC Radio
Scotland's Morning Call programme on Friday morning to say the Scottish
government had acted to end that "cynical" attempt to "put the
frighteners on people".
He told listeners: "It's impossible, illegal in fact, for a
council to start pursuit of poll tax debt. There is a 20-year limit by
the law. "When (Aberdeenshire council leader) Jim Gifford and other politicians around Scotland said they were going to do this they were actually talking through a hole in their hat. They had no ability to do it what so ever.
"What it did do of course, for some people, was make them frightened, it made them afraid, that by the act of coming onto the electoral register that somebody was going to hound them for something that happened 25 years ago."
Mr Salmond described the claims made by some councils about how much poll tax debt remained outstanding as "phantom figures" and "nonsense", given that about a quarter of those who had been eligible to pay the tax in 1989 were now dead.
He also said those who had contributed to the £396,000 of poll tax debt that was collected by councils last year were on long-term payment plans.
Mr Salmond made the announcement during First Minister's Questions on Thursday
Mr Salmond added: "These are people who in all likelihood have
paid their poll tax debt many times over and are paying charges and all
the rest of it, as many poor people find when they make these long-term
plans."And he dismissed calls for people who paid the poll tax to now receive a rebate.
The first minister said: "As soon as the tax was abandoned I paid it the next day, so I am in exactly the same position. But I don't think that means you should pursue people for a 25-year-old debt that you can't pursue anyway.
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