The Conservatives said the government had failed to sort out public finances when times were good and pointed the finger firmly at his chancellor predecessor, Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
"In the years of plenty they put nothing aside. They didn't fix the roof when the sun was shining," Conservative leader David Cameron told parliament. "The Chancellor was put in a hole by the prime minister and they both kept digging."
In the job since last June, Darling has had a tough time dealing with the credit crisis and Britain's first bank run in more than a century, which resulted in the government having to nationalise the country's fifth-biggest mortgage lender.
Business has also reacted angrily to his plans for capital gains tax reform and a levy on rich foreigners living in the UK.
After initially riding high after succeeding Tony Blair last year, opinion polls have turned sour on Brown and he now lags the Conservatives by a significant margin.
Analysts say any government in power for nearly 11 years faces a struggle to secure re-election if its opponents look credible.
Brown, having shied away from an early election last year, is not expected to go to the polls until 2009 or even 2010.
With money so tight, few analysts predicted a radical budget as cuts in corporation tax and income tax, to come into effect in April, were already announced by Brown last year.
Darling announced a number of limited measures designed to sell the budget as good for the environment but which green pressure groups said fell far short of what was needed.
He tweaked car duties to hit gas-guzzling vehicles and give a boost to low emission cars and said British retailers must charge customers for the 13 billion plastic bags they now get free every year or the government will force them to.
But he delayed a rise in fuel duty following pressure to scrap the increase after soaring oil prices sent the cost of petrol sharply higher. Fuel duty had been scheduled to go up by 2 pence per litre in April. It will now come in October.
For the so-called "sin taxes", Darling said alcohol duty would increase by 6 percent above the inflation rate and tax on cigarette will rise by 11p on a pack of 20.
