The Turnbull government has hoovered up more than $2 billion in inactive superannuation accounts and claimed the revenue as its own, saying it does not trust the superannuation industry to reunite the accounts of millions of Australian workers.

New Tax Office figures show more than 4.1 million "lost" super accounts with balances of up to $6000 have already been taken by the Australian Tax Office but the ATO will not have the power to automatically redistribute them to the account holders unless measures are passed from the May budget.

The budget papers show the government has also added another $1.1 billion taken from inactive accounts to the underlying cash balance over the next four years and will gain $166 million in tax from the super accounts it has scooped up with higher balances thanks to lower fees.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Minister for Financial Services and Revenue, Kelly O'Dwyer. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

This decision props up the wafer thin $2.2 billion surplus the government has vowed to deliver in 2019-20, despite the expectation that the majority of the money will flow back into the active funds of workers.