TREASURY'S costings of the Coalition's election promises have found a $7 billion hole in the opposition's claim that its election promises and proposals would save $11.5bn over the next four years.
Treasury added that if some of the assumptions that the Coalition had used to come up with the figure did not hold up, the net benefit of its policies could be as low as $500 million.
Treasury's costing of the government's promises and savings proposals suggested Labor's economic plans would raise the underlying cash balance in 2013-14 by $106 million.
The three rural independents who hold the power to decide which side of politics will form a minority government released the costings last night.
Bob Katter, Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott had requested the Treasury and Finance Department briefings in their bid to assess the major parties' policies.
The independents said they were releasing the figures in the public interest and would discuss the figures with ministers and opposition frontbenchers in a series of meetings today.
Mr Windsor said last night that the Coalition's costings had a "black hole".
"The, what I call black hole, is somewhere between $7 (billion) and $11bn, the difference between what the Coalition said their costings were and what the Treasury would suggest in terms of an incoming government for their bottom line," Mr Windsor told the ABC's Lateline.
"The Treasury is saying the Coalition went to the election with something like $3.3bn of new money in terms of commitments to projects and what they are essentially saying now is that they have intended to scrap the equivalent amount of $3.3bn in projects."
In a statement last night Mr Oakeshott said the costings raised "a number of issues" that he, Mr Windsor and Mr Katter would pursue further.
"We certainly appreciate the extensive work that has been done by the Treasury and the Finance departments over the past week, and we also appreciate the ongoing discussions that have taken place this week behind closed doors between the political parties and the two departments," Mr Oakeshott said.
He said the release of the information a week and a half after the election raised "serious question marks" about the Charter of Budget Honesty process.
"It raises the importance of the need for an independent budget office into the future - an office that is now under consideration as part of the parliamentary reform program currently under way."
Tony Abbott had resisted having the Coalition's policies costed during the election campaign because he claimed a leak of Coalition costings from Treasury or the Treasurer's office had tainted the process.
The Opposition Leader also said he was concerned that the Coalition's promises and policies, which were costed by a private accounting firm and showed a net benefit of $11.5bn, would be different from the Treasury costings because Treasury officials were not aware of the assumptions of the Coalition promises.
Julia Gillard said Mr Abbott had been hiding from scrutiny and called on the Coalition to release the costings when they were given to the independents.
The independents released the costings last night after briefings from Treasury and Finance.
Yesterday, after signing an alliance with the Greens, the Prime Minister said Labor would release its costings and urged Mr Abbott to do the same.
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