Sewage Works in Osaka, Japan

Sewerage Account

Sewage works is operated by the Special Account, "Sewage Works Accounts" separately from the General Account in order to clarify its revenue and expenditure.
The financial regulation of Local Public Enterprise Law is applied correspondingly and the city of Osaka classifies accounts for sewage works in its "Revenue account" (operation and maintenance cost), which concerns maintenance and management of facilities and its "Capital account" (construction cost), which deals with construction of facilities.
Operation and Maintenance cost comprises expenses incurred in the personnel and non-personnel cost of O&M work of sewerage facilities such as dredging of sewers, O&M of pumping stations and sewage treatment plants and control of industrial wastewater as well as facility depreciation expenses and interest expenses on corporate bonds issued for construction.
Regarding the stormwater drainage expenses, it is covered by city tax (general fund revenue) as we cannot identify the source and it has widespread effects while expenses for treatment of wastewater from household and factories are covered by sewer user charges.
"Construction cost" comprises expenses for improving and constructing sewerage facilities and redemption of corporate bond, etc. and its revenue source comprises general fund subsidy and corporate bond. The general fund subsidy is paid only for selected projects and grant rate of sewers and pumping stations (including the one in sewage treatment plants) is 1/2 and grant rate of sewage treatment plants is 5.5/10.
Corporate bond covers tremendous construction cost and its benefits and expenses are shared fairly among the generations through payback the loan and use of facilities for a long period of time.

Revenue Account

Capital Account

Sewer User Charges

Sewer user charges comprise user charges, which depends on the amount of wastewater generated, and the water quality surcharge, which depends on the degree of pollution over a certain pollution level.
For general sewer user charges, the gradual increase system is used, in which the unit charge per m3 rises as the wastewater drainage volume increases.
As the welfare service, single-parent households and similarly situated households as well as families with severely disabled persons, mentally disabled persons and elderly persons are exempt from sewer user charges upon their request.
In addition to the general sewer user charge, the water quality surcharge is collected from users who generate highly polluted wastewater that exceeds the effluent quality standards (BOD or COD and SS concentration), ensuring fair distribution of costs among users.

Sewer User Charges (General wastewater charges per month)

Sewer User Charges (Water quality surcharge per 1m3)

[GEC Home] [GESAP Home] [Contact us]