Money from a post-quake reconstruction budget is still being used on unrelated projects handled by the industry ministry for promoting power meters and storage batteries despite a government order to return the funds.
Money from a post-quake reconstruction budget is still being used on unrelated projects handled by the industry ministry for promoting power meters and storage batteries despite a government order to return the funds.
In July, the Abe administration decided to have funds operated by public-interest corporations and local governments return unused money from a budget to help reconstruction from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.
The decision came after it was found that 1.2 trillion yen ($12 billion) from the reconstruction budget had been allocated to about 20 funds for projects unrelated to the disaster. About 100 billion yen was still unused as of July.
However, Sustainable Open Innovation Initiative, a Tokyo-based organization that operates a fund for the industry ministry’s two energy-related projects, is accepting new applications for subsidies through January.
The projects promote power-saving meters, which show the amount of electricity used, and storage batteries by paying subsidies to households and companies that install them.
It is said they would lower the nation’s electricity usage and prevent a possible power shortage from disrupting reconstruction of disaster areas.
A combined 51 billion yen was allocated for the projects from the reconstruction budget in November 2011, and 3.4 billion of that money was used by the end of March.
However, when the Abe administration demanded money in the funds be returned, excluding the amount that had been “effectively used,” the industry ministry only returned 10.6 billion yen to state coffers. Officials said how the remaining 37 billion yen would be used had already been decided.
According to Sustainable Open Innovation Initiative and companies that sell the equipment, however, the amount also included the value of equipment in inventory that they ordered, relying on subsidies, and plan to sell in the future.
The companies are telling prospective customers that subsidies are still available.
“We do not know about equipment in inventory,” said an official at the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, part of the industry ministry. “We heard (from companies) figures for equipment already ordered and equipment in a stage immediately before contracts are signed.”
Hiroshi Arikawa, a professor at Nihon University, said the industry ministry cannot gain the understanding of taxpayers who think the budget will be spent on post-quake reconstruction.
“The ministry has continued the projects apparently to prevent disruption of industry,” said Arikawa, a former official of the Board of Audit of Japan. “But the budget should be routed to disaster areas as much as possible, even down to a single yen.”
(This article was written by Hirotaka Kojo and Eiji Zakoda.)