The fare for the sewerage service is based on the costs of all activities related to this service, by reference to the total amount of processed waste water, including meteoric water, for which the rainwater is invoiced at the same tariff with domestic wastewater.
The procedure is clarified, at the request of Profit.ro, by the National Regulatory Authority for the Community Services of Public Utilities (ANRSC), after recently formulated a series of legal opinions and interpretations regarding the legality and the way of calculating the so-called “rainwater tax” (respectively the sewerage service), or at least the water, Legal – in the charge of this tax by the regional water and sewerage operators.
However, ANRSC shows that, through the water supply and sewerage service, according to art. 3 Iit.a) of Law no. 241/2006, all the activities of public utility and of general economic and social interest carried out for the purpose of capturing, treating, transporting, storing and distributing drinking or industrial water to all users in the territory of a locality, respectively for collecting, transporting, purifying and evacuating wastewater, meteoric waters, The rainwater and surface waters in the city of localities is, according to art. 3 letter. c) of the law, a distinct activity that is part of the sewerage service and whose value is supported by all users, natural and legal persons, from the administrative-territorial unit.
For the financing of the water and sewerage service, the provisions of art. 35 para. (1) of Law no. 241/2006 establish the following: the financing of the operating expenses necessary for the operation and the exploitation of the service is ensured by collecting from the users, based on the invoices issued by the operators, of the value of the services provided/provided.
At the same time, according to art. 43 para. (1) and (2) of the Law on community services of public utilities no. 51/2006, the financing of the current expenses for the provision/provision of public utilities services, as well as for the maintenance, operation and functioning of the related systems is carried out on economic and commercial criteria; By collecting from users, in the form of prices or tariffs, the amounts representing the value of the services provided/provided and, as the case may be, from allocations from the local budgets, in compliance with the following principles:
a) ensuring the financial autonomy of the operator;
b) ensuring economic profitability and efficiency;
c) ensuring the equality of treatment of public utilities services in relation to other public services of general interest;
d) completely recovery by the operators of the costs of smoking/providing services.
According to the provisions of art. 15 para. (1) letter. j) of the Law on water supply and sewerage service no. 241/2006, the authorities of the local public administration have the obligation to conclude with the operator a contract for the collection, sewerage and purification of rainwater from the public and private domain of the locality.
Also, the provisions of art. 31 para. (9) and (12) of Law no. 241/2006 set the following:
➢ (9) The individual contract for the supply/provision of the service that concludes with the users from the condominium type buildings is elaborated by the operator, by correlating the obligations provided in par. (7) and (8) on the structure of the framework contract approved by the ANRSC the contract will also include clauses regarding the way of determining and paying the quantities of used and meteoric water, as the case may be.
➢ (12) The individual conventions will also include clauses regarding the method of determination and payment, in the condominium, of the quantities of waste and meteoric water, as the case may be.
The ANRSC also shows that the tariff for the sewerage service is based on the costs of all activities related to this service, in relation to the total amount of processed waste water, including meteoric water, for which the rainwater is invoiced at the same tariff with domestic wastewater.
The provision of the sewerage service, including its component activities, as well as its contracting with the users must be carried out in compliance with the above mentioned provisions and in compliance with the tertiary legislation adopted by the ANRSC in the execution of the law, respectively of the Framework Regulation of the water supply and sewerage service approved by the Order of the ANRSC President no. 88/2007 and the framework contract for the supply/provision of the water supply and sewerage service approved by the Order of the ANRSC president no. 90/2007, by which the relations between the operator and the users are established by correlation to its obligation to ensure the taking over of the waste and meteoric waters to the sewerage system.
Depending on the situations existing in the administrative-territorial units, the local public administration authorities have the opportunity to approve one of the two ways of determining the quantities of meteoric water taken in the sewerage network, specified in art. 215 of the framework regulation approved by the Order of the president of ANRSC no. 88/2007, respectively: 1. the general rule, specified in par.
(1) of this article, by multiplying the specific quantity of meteoric water, communicated by the ANM for the month before issuing the invoice, with the total areas of the built and unconscious enclosures, declared by each user and with the drainage coefficients recommended by SR 1846-1: 2006. 2. Specific local norms or analytical calculation formulas, according to
(2), approved by the authorities of the local public administration and highlighted in the Service Regulation.
Similar provisions regarding the application of any calculation variant above can be found in the framework contract for the supply/provision of the water supply and sewerage service approved by the Order of the ANRSC president no. 90/2007, take chapter V: “Establishing the quantity of water supplied and the one evacuated in the sewerage network”, art. 11, aligned 3: “Establishing the amount of meteoric water taken in the sewerage network is determined by multiplying the specific amount of meteoric water communicated by the ANM for the month before the invoice, with the amount of the invoice, by each user, and with the coefficients you recommend.
It is thus explained that the tax is perfectly legal, clearly regulated for over 20 years, being at the same time a tariff applied at European level.
