By Alastair Murdoch Scottish Action Against Council Tax

Scottish council tax and water charges are unfair and inefficient taxes - even more so than the poll tax.

Council tax bills are being set on 12 February

The average local tax bill is almost twice what it should be as only 56% of the adults in Scotland are levied to pay local taxes.

If all adults paid for the local services we all use, the average local tax bill would be reduced by 44%.

The lower one's income, the higher the percentage of local taxes which must be paid.

This is the exact opposite of National Income Tax - which is generally accepted (albeit reluctantly) as the "fairest" of all taxes.

It also appears to be unaffordable for many. Is this why it has never been collected in full?

Collection rates of 80% to 94% are common. Of the �1.42bn of Scottish council tax due in 2001/2002, �1.3bn was collected within that year - leaving �133m still to be paid. This gives a collection rate of just 91.5%.

House valuations

Based on these above figures, the �400m final cost of the new Holyrood parliament represents only three years of arrears in Scottish council tax.

The council tax is also too expensive to organise and collect.

House valuations are an ongoing process, but every 10 years or so the massive task of revaluing 2.2 million houses is required.

Clearly, staffing costs are high in the areas of house valuations, council tax billing and council tax benefit - not to mention the additional staff recruited to chase up the non-payers.

The consensus in Scotland seems to be for the introduction of some form of local income tax

At the moment, it is possible for councillors to be elected by voters who don't pay a penny in local tax.

In the present system, it is left to local taxpayers to pick up the bill. Surely, this is an unfair anomaly produced by any local tax.

And finally, property value-based water charges produce absurd anomalies.

The water charges for a retired couple in a Band A house in Cumbria were �85 per annum in 2003-04, compared to �215 for a similar property in Strathaven.

The privatisation of English water alone cannot possibly explain the two-and-a-half-fold increase.

Equitable tax

The consensus in Scotland seems to be for the introduction of some form of local income tax, set either locally or nationally.

If this were the preferred option, it is imperative that it be collected by the Inland Revenue along with PAYE.

Under an equitable local tax everyone who uses local services would pay a contribution - however small.