VANCOUVER -- Christy Clark's first budget as premier is expected to lack bells and whistles, and instead focus on reining in government spending.

Finance Minister Kevin Falcon will announce the budget Tuesday with a heavy dose of fiscal prudence and minimal goodies.

"It is setting the stage of what this government will be doing under the new premier," Fraser Institute associate director Charles Lammam said. "If they are not going to be promoting policies that are in B.C.'s interest out the gate, I think it gives British Columbians an indication of what's to come."

Lammam argues the budget should focus on a plan for the province to get out of deficit and lay out what the government's plan is to mitigate the HST impact.

The government announced the PST/GST will return in March 2013.

Liberal MLAs Mary Polak and Ralph Sultan laid out what they claimed an NDP budget would look like. The unscientific exercise totalled up a number of "promises" the party had made over the year and, according to the Liberal calculations, it means $6.8 billion in new annual spending.

"It's easy to make promises, (but) it's harder to explain how you are going to pay for them," Langley MLA Polak said. "Adrian Dix and the NDP are not letting taxpayers know the costs of their promises. Adrian Dix needs to come clean and let taxpayers know how he plans to find the money to fund his promises."

The Liberals have been mandated to balance the budget by 2013-14. The projected deficit for this year was recently pegged at $3.1 billion.