UPDATED 4.37PM: There are answers and evasions from the Finance Minister as he faces questions over the state of his books.

It's been confirmed there will be no surplus in this year's Budget, though the Government's committing to not making any service cuts in response.

READ: Full speech from Bill English

Finance Minister Bill English says getting to surplus is still a target but isn't saying if the target date for doing so is now next year.

"It's not a matter of a new target. Getting to surplus is going to take a bit longer," he said. "We're basically on track, so the likelihood of that hasn't really altered."

English isn't ruling out the chance of future tax cuts in 2017, and believes everything is on track.

"If you set out to lose ten kilos of weight and you lost nine-point-eight, you wouldn't say it was a failure would you?"

Labour MP Grant Robertson disagrees with English's characterisation, arguing that  "if you've been on a diet for seven years and you still don't make your target weight, there's something wrong with the diet."

Robertson adds that it breaks a double election promise and will see Mr English deliver seven deficits in seven Budgets.

He says not only is this year's surplus a dead duck, but the surplus for next year is also beginning to look under threat.

The Finance Minister is blaming lower growth and lower inflation for a fiscal hole that's set to feature on his books in this month's Budget.

In a speech earlier today, he maintains "Treasury is still finalising its forecasts for the budget, but it's fair to say that the forecasts for the fourteen-fifteen year show some small deterioration since the half-year update, and also slightly smaller surpluses for twenty-fifteen-sixteen."

Treasury now expects the Government will collect $4.5 billion less in tax revenue over the next four years than it'd expected at last year's Budget.