The Scottish National Party has announced a series of tax cut pledges for business and the public in its battle to defeat Labour in the Scotland general election in May.

SNP leader Alex Salmond has pledged to remove council tax and swap it with a local income tax, abolish business rates for businesses with a rateable value of £8,000, which should affect 120,000 companies. Rate relief will be introduced for 30,000 businesses, which have a rateable value of between £8,000 and £15,000.

'Local companies will be free to invest, gorw and employ more people,' stated the SNP's advertising campaign.

The Scottish Labour Party said the SNP was hiding the true costs of its income tax pledge.

Further reading:

Labour promises tax cuts for elderly

Scottish National Party calls for Council Tax to be scrapped

Next Scottish elections will use electronic counting