Humza Yousaf has been accused of "ignoring the country" in his speech yesterday, which was dubbed delusional by critics.
The SNP leader used his speech yesterday to claim that the SNP would not raise taxes or slash public spending if Scotland chooses to leave the UK.
While he admitted that life in an independent Scotland would not immediately be "rivers of milk and honey", he refused to answer questions about how long it would take the country to transition and be successful.
Yousaf said: "The prize for the typical Scottish household would be even greater, they would be £10,200 better off.
Humza Yousaf has been accused of "ignoring the country" in his speech yesterday, which was dubbed delusional by critics
PA
“That then, is the huge prize of independence. Not to match the performance of those independent countries overnight – no one’s suggesting that is going to happen – but to start catching so that Scotland becomes more normal.
"I'm not selling independence as overnight change, that somehow, the day after we become independent there will be rivers of milk and honey and manna will fall from the sky, there will be challenges of course."
Speaking to journalists after the speech, Yousaf was asked whether he could guarantee no further tax hikes or public spending cuts.
He said: "You have to look at what financial circumstances there are in an independent Scotland.
"We believe Scotland will end up better off, not worse off than it is currently, so we wouldn't be in the SNP, looking to raise taxes or public spending. I think we've shown that in the difficult autumn statement and what that meant for our economy and our budget for 2024.
"We chose not make vast cuts to public services, in fact we increased the NHS, the education budget, the police budget, the fire budget, so on and so forth.
"There were calls to spend all of our consequentials from the Autumn Statement on business tax cuts, budget cuts, that wasn't something we were going to do at the expense of politics."
But hitting back at Yousaf's speech, Scottish Tory chairman Craig Hoy dismissed it as "fantasy".
He said: “The First Minister’s case for ripping Scotland out of the UK rests on myths, fantasy economics and the fanciful hope the public forget that last month’s disastrous tax-and-axe budget was the product of years of waste and dismal growth under the SNP.
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“He has the powers to improve the lives of Scottish workers now but instead has chosen to make Scotland the highest taxed part of the UK, damaging our competitiveness.
"Humza Yousaf is a weak leader in charge of a feuding, scandal-ridden party, which is why he is banging on about the one issue they agree on – breaking up the UK – and ignoring the country at large."
But an SNP spokesperson said: “It’s laughable that the Tories think they have any leg to stand on when it comes to attacking the SNP’s budget choices, after the corrupt UK government’s financial mismanagement single-handedly wrecked the UK economy, which households in Scotland are still living with the consequences of.
“The reality is that this SNP Government was elected under a pro-independence manifesto and, under First Minister Humza Yousaf, is delivering on what matters most to the people of Scotland; protecting workers’ rights, bolstering public services, and mitigating the damaging effects the Tory cost of living crisis.”
