The Government is being accused of deliberating excluding from the Budget in May nearly $10 billion of revenue that would be lost from asset sales.
The Labour Party has produced figures which it says shows the amount of Government income that would be lost if National goes ahead with its plan to partially sell five state-owned energy companies.
The party's finance spokesperson David Cunliffe, says that, based on the Budget's own figures, the Government would lose $9.7 billion by 2025 - as opposed to the $5.7 billion National says it could earn by partial asset sales.
But Associate Finance Minister Steven Joyce says Treasury has advised that any drop in dividends would be offset by lower debt servicing costs due to the sale proceeds.
