By Raymond Buchanan BBC Radio Scotland's Sunday Live

Politicians have proposed alternative systems

Soon those envelopes with next year's council tax demands will drop on door steps across Scotland.

On Thursday, 32 councils will meet and decide how much extra you will have to pay.

As always, how big a financial hit you will take will depend on where you live.

At present the lowest council tax for a Band D home is on the Western Isles.

Islanders pay �867 per year compared to the most expensive in Glasgow at �1,163 per annum.

PROJECTED COUNCIL TAX INCREASES Aberdeen - 6-7% Aberdeenshire - 5% Angus - Not available (N/A) Argyll and Bute - 2.9% Clackmannanshire - N/A Dumfries and Galloway - 4.9% Dundee - 5% East Ayrshire - 4.9% East Dunbartonshire - 5.6% East Lothian - 5% East Renfrewshire - 5% Edinburgh - 4% Falkirk - 5% Fife - 3.5% Glasgow - 4% Highland - 5.1% Inverclyde - 5% Midlothian - 5% Moray - 15% North Ayrshire - N/A North Lanarkshire - N/A Orkney - 4.5% Perth and Kinross - 4.5% Renfrewshire - 5% Scottish Borders - 5.4% Shetland - 7.2% South Ayrshire - 5% South Lanarkshire - 3.8% Stirling - 4% West Dunbartonshire - 3% West Lothian - 4.5% Western Isles - 5%

So what can you expect? A survey for BBC Radio Scotland's Sunday Live programme has found that the average increase amongst the 32 councils is likely to be about 5%.

But within that there are large variations.

Moray Council is expected to vote for a rise of up to 15%, whereas Argyll and Bute's bill is only likely to increase by around 2.9%.

Water rates for 2004/2005 were announced last week. In central Scotland they will also rise by 5%, although consumers in the north of the country will see their bills fall by 3.4%.

In recent years any rise in council tax has been controversial.

Protests have taken place in Westminster by pensioners angry at steep increases in their bills compared with slow rises in their incomes.

A 35,000-signature petition has already been handed in to Downing Street calling for reform.

The campaign also has the support of Help the Aged.

Middle income

It is trying to gather support from various pensioners' groups across Scotland before petitioning the parliament in Edinburgh.

The charity wants MSPs to consider fairer alternatives which would remove middle income pensioners from paying the tax.

According to Help the Aged, council tax in Scotland has gone up by 80% since 1993, while the basic state pension has only increased by 40%.

The Scottish Socialist Party has proposed a Scottish service tax.

Every review of council finances in the last 30 years has considered some type of local income tax and none have been able to push it through Colin Mair Strathclyde University

It would replace the current council tax with a local income tax based on ability to pay.

The SSP said its proposals would mean that anyone earning less than �12,000 a year would be exempt from any charges.

At their last UK conference the Liberal Democrats voted to scrap council tax.

The party is also in favour of a local income tax, but said it would allow individual councils to set their own rates.

The Scottish National Party also wants council tax scrapped in favour of an extra payment on top of national income tax.

But according to local government analysts, all of these are unlikely.

Council tax bills will be announced on Thursday

Colin Mair, the director of the Scottish Local Authorities Management Centre at Strathclyde University, said: "Realistically, every review of council finances in the last 30 years has considered some type of local income tax and none have been able to push it through.

"The Treasury has never shown any enthusiasm for it."

The Scottish Executive will soon assess council tax as part of its local government finance review.

But opponents of the charge should not expect radical changes quickly.

The remit of the review has still to be decided and no timetable has yet been set for its results to be published.

The local government organisation, Cosla, does not want any radical overhaul.