Scotland could be offered a "menu" of possible local taxes to replace the council tax at the next Holyrood election, according to local government minister Marco Biagi.

The new Commission on Local Tax Reform - which features input from all the main political parties apart from the Conservatives - has not been tasked with providing a specific recommendation for the "flawed" system of local taxation, he told MSPs at Holyrood.

Instead, it will be tasked with coming up with alternatives that are "politically viable", he said.

Mr Biagi acknowledged that there may be no perfect solution that all parties can get behind but added that the commission could offer various solutions.

Conservative finance spokesman Gavin Brown mocked the idea of a commission to produce ideas but no recommendations.

The Conservatives launched an alternative Commission for Competitive and Fair Taxation this week, which Mr Brown said "will ultimately produce conclusions and recommendations".

The party will then "decide whether to take all or most of those recommendations", he said.

Mr Biagi said: "The Commission on Local Tax Reform hasn't been asked to make a specific recommendation, although it is perfectly entitled to if it reaches one particular view.

"Rather, we envisage that its work will be to deliver a profound understanding of all of the potential systems.

"I think it is unimaginable that the next Scottish government, whoever that is, whichever party or combination of parties that is, will have a policy of maintaining the existing council tax as set out in the 1992 Local Government Finance Act.

"So, this commission will help us to understand what the alternative propositions are, what they would mean and whether they would be politically viable."

He added: "We have to realistic though. Perhaps we have all been missing something, but my expectation is there is no perfect solution.

"There is probably not going to be one that everybody is going to look at a say: 'Yes, that's the tax that I am happy to pay, let's do it.'

"The real world is about trade-offs. The work of this commission can allow us to understand those trade-offs and allow policy to be developed to address them, and we may well take different choices.

"Instead of thinking about this as delivering a main course perhaps it can give us a menu for which we can all choose in the knowledge that all the options have been vigorously tested."

Labour local government spokesman Alex Rowley said: "I am disappointed that the Conservative group have taken the position not to participate within the commission.

"I say that because, like the minister, I don't have an expectation that we will reach a conclusion and we will then say that is the system of local government finance that needs to be put in place.

"I think I am much more keen that this commission looks at the options that are there and is able to provide a useful report that all parties can then use to move forward as we set our manifestos."

Mr Brown said: "I am staggered to learn that we are going to get all of these people, some of whom I genuinely rate highly, with a secretariat in a room engaging with civic society over the course of a year and at the end of all of that, according to the minister, they are just going to produce a menu.

"And hearing from the Labour Party, their view is that there will be no recommendations from the commission at the end of all of this work.

"I am genuinely surprised. It sounds just like a talking shop.

"What is the point of getting all of these people together if they are not going to recommend anything at the end of it and it's going to be just a menu from which political parties can choose when drawing up their manifestos for the 2016 elections?"

He said the Commission for Competitive and Fair Taxation, launched by the Conservatives this week, "will ultimately produce conclusions and, in this case recommendations".

"The conclusions will be independently reached by the commissioners and it is then, of course, up to the party to decide to take all or most of those recommendations."

Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: "This commission is not about deciding whether tax should be high or low.

"This commission is about coming up with a taxation system that will work, not just for Scotland but for local government.

"So, when Gavin Brown indicates that what he is interested in is low tax, that is no barrier to being involved in this commission.

"He could be equally involved in that and then subsequently argue that whatever we came up with involved a low -ax element.

"I think it would be advisable if Gavin Brown did seek the advice of others from other political parties, and know that he's got his own commission but very many people are going to be involved in this, because the Conservative track record on coming up with a local taxation system is not a good one."