Sir Tom said he wants Scotland to make its own decisions

In October, the multi-millionaire donated �100,000 to the SNP's campaign to create a "level playing field" with the other parties.

He told BBC Scotland that the majority of people wanted a change from the current "halfway house" of devolution.

However, CBI Scotland warned last year that seeking more powers for Holyrood should not dominate the elections.

Speaking to Newsnight Scotland, Kwik-Fit founder Sir Tom would still not confirm outright who he would be voting for at the May elections.

But he said: "I would like to see more responsibility and more Scottish affairs being under our own control.

"So, yes, I think I have a leaning now more towards the SNP than I had before."

If we had a government whose responsibility was to collect the money - they could only spend that which they collected - we would be a lot better off Sir Tom Farmer

Sir Tom added: "I don't feel happy with the current situation where we are half pregnant. It's a halfway house that we have just now.

"What's happened with devolution is it has not met people's expectations ... and they feel, quite simply, that having had a coalition management of a devolved parliament that it's time for change and they want to see that change happening and this is the opportunity in this election."

Sir Tom said he believed fiscal autonomy would make the administration in Scotland more efficient.

"There's a general feeling that bureaucracy and cost is not something that's very tightly controlled at the moment," he said.

"If we had a government whose responsibility was to collect the money - they could only spend that which they collected - we would be a lot better off."

He also said he did not believe big business would leave Scotland if an SNP-led Scottish Parliament called for a referendum.

I don't think the SNP have convinced a majority of business leaders that the balance of advantage lies in cessation from the United Kingdom Iain McMillan

Sir Tom said about 90% of businesses in Scotland did not think that the Scottish Executive had been pro-business.

Iain McMillan, director of CBI Scotland, told Newsnight Scotland that he believed a number of successful business leaders would disagree with Sir Tom Farmer.

He said: "He does appear to be calling for the defeat of the current Labour party and the Liberal Democrat party in terms of their coalition."

When asked to comment on the economic implications of independence for Scotland, he said: "I think there are questions outstanding, I don't think yet, to be fair to the SNP, that they have convinced a majority of business leaders that the balance of advantage lies in cessation from the United Kingdom."

'Dependency culture'

Last month the former Royal Bank of Scotland chairman Sir George Mathewson backed SNP leader Alex Salmond to be the next first minister of Scotland.

He said independence could liberate Scotland from a "dependency culture".

His comments were dismissed by Prime Minister Tony Blair as "self-indulgent and absurd".

Rangers FC chairman Sir David Murray also joined the debate, by accusing Mr Salmond of "intimidating" Scotland's business community into staying silent on independence.