The pro-independence campaign has mocked the Treasury's projection that Scots would be £1 worse off a year rather than £500 richer under independence.
Blair Jenkins, the chief executive of Yes Scotland, launched a "Pay a pound for Scotland" mock campaign yesterday, following The Herald's exclusive report of the Coalition Government's latest calculations.
The calculation by Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander was intended to expose as a "myth" the SNP claim that people would be better off based on a single good year for the oil industry.
But yesterday Mr Jenkins countered: "If the cost of creating a more equal and fairer Scotland was only £1, I'm certain most Scots would think that a price worth paying.
"It is remarkable that at this early stage in the campaign, the Treasury has conceded that people in Scotland would be financially no worse off under independence."
Mr Jenkins said independence would allow Scotland to choose a different path to Westminster, such as by scrapping the £250 million a year spent on nuclear weapons.
Mr Alexander told The Herald: "Basing a case for Scotland to be independent forever on one good year of oil revenues is incredibly misleading."
First Minister Alex Salmond pointed out last week that oil with a wholesale value of £1.5 trillion remains untapped.
A social attitudes survey conducted just over a year ago suggested a majority of voters would back independence in 2014 if they believed their standard of living would remain about the same, but the gain or loss of £500 annually could sway the result either way.
Meanwhile, Better Together leader Alistair Darling will today begin a tour of Scotland to spread the pro-Union message.
He said: "Over the next few months, I want to get to every part of Scotland and I want to hear as many views as possible."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article