Treasurer Joe Hockey says the final budget outcome shows Labor has left an 18.8 billion dollar deficit.

THE new Government today used a $20 billion blowout revealed in final Budget figures for 2012-13 to accuse Labor of a “Budget mess” only the Coalition could fix.

Treasurer Joe Hockey accused the Labor government of “over-promising and underdelivering” and falsely claiming there had been a fall in revenue caused by the easing of the mining boom which required spending cuts.

“The fact is it is a litany of failures and political promises,” Mr Hockey told reporters.

The figures had no substantial surprises and closely matched the estimates presented by Treasury just before the September 7 election.

And Treasurer Hockey denied he had promised a surplus in his first year in office, saying he was now dealing with “an entirely different set of numbers”.

Mr Hockey said there had been “a further deterioration’’ in the figures projected for subsequent years, and he was testing Labor’s forecasts to see how “robust” they were.

“But what Australia needed was an injection of confidence. And we have done that,” said Mr Hockey, declining to speculate on further forecasts.

He said the $1.8 billion Labor had claimed was being dodged on fringe benefits tax on vehicles had already been found to be untrue.

The Coalition in Opposition had argued the government was spending too much, not bringing in too little in tax returns.

“There has been no ‘fall in revenue and receipts’ as often asserted by Labor,” Mr Hockey and Finance Minister Mathias Corman said in a statement.

“Receipts for 2012-13 alone increased by 6.4 per cent, or $21 billion, over the previous year, 2011-12.”

The final figures for the year showed that forecasts made in May 2012 for the 12 months to the end of June this year were well off the mark:

* GDP growth estimated to be five per cent came in at 2.5 per cent;

* The expected $1.5 billion Budget surplus became an $18.8 billion deficit — a $20.4 billion deterioration;

* Net debt estimated to be $143.3 billion ended at $153 billion;

* Interest payments on debt were expected to reach $7 billion but ended up at $8.3 billion