A subcommittee of the Finance Ministry's Fiscal System Council recommended Friday that the 31 special accounts in the government's budget be streamlined by absorption into the general account, privatization, or management by independent administrative institutions.

Here are some answers to questions on how the special accounts currently operate:

What are the special accounts?

Funds in the special accounts are used for special projects and are funded by specific tax revenue.

For example, the Road Construction and Improvement Account -- the largest after accounts for local government grants, public debt management and pensions -- is expected to pool about 3.9 trillion yen in fiscal 2005 from gasoline taxes, fuel-oil taxes, tolls, loans and other sources.

That money is allocated solely for road-related expenses, including maintaining and building roads and bridges, and cannot be spent on any other projects, including building hospitals or funding schools.

A number of special accounts include revenue from nontax sources.

For example, when people bet on horses through the government-affiliated Japan Racing Association, a portion of the profits go into special accounts. Seventy-five percent of the money is allocated to help livestock farmers and includes such projects as research into new management methods and support for female ranchers. The remaining 25 percent is set aside for health-care programs, including funding nursing care.

Why is the money separated from the general account budget?

The accounts guarantee a steady flow of funds to high priority projects and services by linking accounts to related taxes.

The road account is set up so that the revenue comes from taxes linked to roads, so that people who drive pay to maintain the roads and bridges. Each time someone takes a plane, that person pays an aviation fuel tax, which goes to pay for airport maintenance. And electricity taxes fund the development of new and more efficient energy sources.

Why is the government trying to change the system?

Critics, including the Finance Ministry, the Tax Commission and the prime minister's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, have argued the accounts encourage waste and abuse. They have said the funds are spent on unnecessary projects just because the money is available.

The Finance Ministry is searching for ways to reduce the huge public debt, and critics of the special accounts say those funds could be put to better use in the general account budget, where it could be used for a wider range of budgetary items.

Why haven't there been any changes so far?

The ministries that control the special accounts are resisting changes, claiming it would cause them to lose a stable source of funds for specific projects.

"I wouldn't object if we got assurances that the Finance Ministry would give us funding when it was really necessary -- but they rarely do," said one high-ranking Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry official, discussing the possibility of transferring electricity tax revenue to the general account budget.

Another reason the issue has never been addressed in earnest is the complex path the money travels from taxpayers to the special accounts -- another reason the special accounts have escaped close scrutiny.

Some tax revenue is first pooled in the general account budget and then the money raised from designated taxes is separated out and allocated to the special accounts. In the current fiscal budget, 48 trillion yen in the general account budget is slated to end up in special accounts. Of this amount, roughly 4 trillion yen is earmarked for specified general objectives.

But the specific allocations of the money tagged for the specific objectives is still determined mostly by the ministries managing those special accounts.