A Conservative government would make "extreme" and "unprecedented" public spending cuts, Labour has argued.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls made a speech setting out his party's analysis of how Conservative plans would affect non-protected Whitehall departments.
It comes less than two weeks before Chancellor George Osborne presents his final Budget before the election.
The Conservatives say Labour's plans would lead to "higher taxes and economic chaos".
They also rejected claims their plans would lead to "colossal" spending cuts.
'Most extreme'David Cameron has promised to protect England's NHS budget in real terms and schools' cash budgets.
But Mr Balls claimed to show how non-protected departments, such as policing and social care, would face "catastrophic" cuts if the Conservatives were re-elected in May's general election.
End Quote Ed Balls Shadow chancellorThe analysis we are publishing today shows Tory plans mean spending cuts larger in the next four years than in the last five years"
Speaking in central London, he said Conservative plans on tax and spending meant the party would have to cut spending by £70bn.
The only alternative, he claimed, was to raise VAT or cut the NHS, which has been ruled out by the Conservatives.
Mr Balls said Mr Osborne had made a "genuine strategic choice" to "dogmatically" increase spending cuts to meet his fiscal targets.
Asked what Labour would do instead, Labour's Treasury spokesman Chris Leslie told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the party would balance the books "as soon as possible" in the next Parliament but not go "way beyond" cutting the deficit as he claimed the Conservatives wanted to do.
Significant differencesBBC assistant political editor Norman Smith said Labour's "dossier" was designed to give people "the political heebie jeebies" given the scale of cuts required, and an attempt to paint the Conservatives as ideological when it comes to reducing spending.
The "big danger" for Labour, he said, was that people start asking about the opposition's own cost-cutting plans, with those announced so far amounting to "small beer compared to the size of the hulking great deficit we face".
Conservative ministers presented their own dossier in January showing what they said were unfunded spending commitments made by Labour.
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the difference between Labour and the Conservatives' deficit reduction strategies are "pretty stark".
The Conservatives are planning an overall budget surplus of £23bn by 2019-20. Labour would deliver a surplus only on the current budget and allow higher spending on investment.
The Liberal Democrats are also setting out their economic strategy on Monday, with a target of making the UK the largest economy in Europe by 2035.
The Lib Dems say their economic strategy, featuring a mixture of tax increases and spending cuts, would keep the government "anchored" in the centre ground and "finish the job fairly".
Responding to Mr Balls' attack, a Conservative spokesman said: "There is a clear choice at what is the most important election in a generation - borrowing forever with Ed Miliband, propped by Alex Salmond, and the higher taxes and economic chaos for hardworking taxpayers that will result.
"Or sticking with the competence and stability of David Cameron and the Conservatives' long-term economic plan that's securing a better future for Britain - the deficit has been halved, there are 1.85 million more good jobs and the economy is recovering."
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