Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison will hand down a budget on Tuesday night that will help to define this year’s lengthy election campaign.

The government says it is a new, positive plan to create jobs and promote economic growth, but it is also adopting one of the federal Opposition’s biggest proposed tax increases.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann confirmed the budget would contain a 12.5 per cent annual increase in tobacco excise over the four years to 2020.

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But he said the budget would also reveal a $20 billion hole in Labor’s plan.

“We are implementing in the budget the same policy on tobacco excise as Labor has previously announced and what is very clear is that Labor’s sums just don’t add up,” he said.

Labor estimated its policy would raise almost $48 billion over 10 years, but a Treasury document seen by the ABC estimates the revenue at just over $28 billion.

“This is just another example which demonstrates that Labor just doesn’t know how to manage money, ” Mr Cormann said.

But the Opposition has rejected the government’s attack.

“Labor’s policy was costed by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office,” Shadow Families Minister Jenny Macklin told the ABC’s AM program.

“Of course we have a significant number of savings that have been identified to help meet the cost of our very important promises, particularly our promises to properly fund schools.

“We’ve got about $100 billion worth of savings that have been identified and all of those have been properly costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office.”

Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen accused the government of leaking the figures to try to cover its embarrassment for adopting Labor’s policy.

But he said the Opposition would update its savings figures if the budget contained new modelling on smoking rates.

– ABC