Richard Bacon has panned the taxman for using 'sketchy and volatile' estimates to arrive at a target of £11.5bn of savings when its transformation programme is completed.

The Public Accounts Committee member's comments came in response to an NAO progress report on the Revenue's efficency drive.

'The report could not be clearer: a programme of this size and complexity needs realistic planning. If the mandarins at HMRC think using sketchy and volatile estimates is the way to drum up serious savings, they need to get real. '

HMRC has kicked off the £2.7bn project, aiming to make about £11.5bn of savings from an increase of £6.3bn in the tax yield and more than £4bn of transaction savings, but the MP said that the taxman had been too optimistic in its calculations.

'The estimates are based on the increased tax yield being collected in full and transaction savings which have not been validated yet. This is hardly solid ground for a multi-billion pound savings drive.'

Further reading:

Visit the NAO website to read the report