First minister hits out at 'smash and grab' raid as he prepares to make case for increased economic powers for Scotland

The Scottish first minister, Alex Salmond, has warned that the UK government's "smash and grab" raid on North Sea oil revenues could cost 10,000 potential jobs.

The Scottish National party leader's warning came as he prepared to meet the chancellor, George Osborne, to make the case for increased economic powers for Holyrood.

He said a budget measure outlined by Osborne in March – which will see an extra £2bn tax on oil and gas production – would leave Scotland "worse off" in the future because it would lead to reduced investment.

Salmond – who was formally sworn in as first minister for a second term after the SNP secured an unprecedented majority in the Holyrood elections earlier this month – said he intended to put forward an alternative proposal to avoid a "damaging economic impact" on Scotland.

And he stressed that the SNP's aim of securing "economic equality" would not stop the party from seeking official independence from the rest of the UK.

Salmond emphasised the importance of North Sea oil to jobs and investment in Scotland when he spoke on BBC Radio Four's Today programme prior to his meeting with ministers.

Osborne raised supplementary tax on oil and gas production from 20% to 32% in the March budget, and the first minister said: "The problem with the smash and grab raid, the extra £2bn on top of the other £11bn the chancellor was expecting from Scottish oil revenues this year, is that it is going to cost a lot of jobs.

"It will actually make future chancellors worse off in the long term because it will lead to a substantial reduction in what investment would have been.

"What I will be saying to him is [that] there is a way to get most of the money but maintain most of the jobs.

"Wouldn't it be a bit more sensible to do that rather than the blunt, panicky, spatchcock, last-minute instrument that the chancellor decided on when he was trying to grab as much money as possible in the desperate days before his budget?"

Salmond drew on analysis by economists of the impact of the additional surcharge on corporation tax, saying: "We have come to the conclusion, if that analysis is correct, that it would be far better to take slightly less additional money in return for having substantially more revenue in the future and tens of thousands more jobs.

"I would have thought that even for George Osborne, the idea of ten thousand jobs, admittedly largely in Scotland, is certainly important, and I certainly know that, for George Osborne, the idea of getting more money out of Scottish resources in the future is quite an attractive option."

Salmond said he was focusing on the Scotland bill making its way through parliament to secure beefed-up measures in areas such as borrowing powers because these needed to be introduced to help Scotland's economic recovery.

The SNP's position is that Scotland should raise "all of its own revenue" and be responsible for all of its own spending, with England in the same position.

This would mean Scotland would not be complaining about England "filching" its natural resources, and people in England would not be complaining about Scotland and public spending, giving Scotland a "relationship of independence", he said.

But he stressed this was distinct from the bid for formal independence, which the SNP has promised to put to a referendum.

"The two things are distinct," he said. "The argument for independence goes beyond economic equality.

"The argument for independence is for things like whether Scotland should be forced to participate in the illegal invasion of Iraq, whether we have the right to decide as a nation whether to have the largest concentration of weapons of mass destruction on the European continent.

"So I think independence and nationality and self determination are about more than economics, important though economics is and very much the subject of my very friendly discussions on the position of equality, I hope, with the chancellor today."

The first minister will also meet the energy secretary, Chris Huhne, and the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, during his visit.