The 'Sewage Services Charging Scheme' was introduced on 1 April 1995 according to the 'polluters pay' principle. All premises connected to public sewers are required to pay the sewage services charges. Sewage services charges have two components: the Sewage Charge (SC) and the Trade Effluent Surcharge (TES). At present, the number of trades that are required to pay TES has been reduced from the original 30 to 27.
Customer Enquiries
The numbers of verbal and written enquiries received for the past five years and their distribution are shown in Appendix G of the full version of this report on our website.
Distribution of Written Enquiries Received in 2011-12 by Types
Reassessment of TES Rate and Discharge Factor
Non-domestic consumers may apply for reassessment of the TES rate or discharge factor if they consider that their effluent strength or discharge factor is lower than the corresponding values specified in the Ordinance. The validity period for the reassessed TES rate is three years.
Distribution of COD Reassessment Applications in 2011-12 by Business Classification
Business Reclassification
The numbers of applications for business reclassification handled for the past five years are shown in Appendix G of the full version of the report on our website.
Billing and Consumption Statistics
There are about 2.80 million water accounts, of which about 2.59 million are liable to pay sewage charge.
In the non-domestic category, about 21400 accounts are liable to pay TES as they are operating one of the 27 trades designated in the Sewage Services (TES) Regulation. The distribution of TES accounts by trade types is shown in the attached chart.
Distribution of TES Accounts by Trade Types in 2011-12
Revenue and Expenditure
The revenue and expenditure in the Sewage Services Operating Accounts for the past five years are summarised in the table below:
Sewage Services Cost Recovery Rates
The sewage services cost recovery rates for 2010-11 and 2011-12 are as follows:
Adjustment of Sewage Charges
To enhance the Polluters Pay Principle and to encourage the public to conserve valuable water, the Legislative Council has approved a gradual increase of the SC for 10 years starting from 1 April 2008. Since that day, the SC rate was revised from the original $1.20 to $1.31 per m3 of water supplied. The rate is then gradually increased by 9.3 per cent per annum until reaching $2.92 per m3 of water supplied on 1 April 2017.
