"This is the cheapest tomb. Unless you choose to bury the ashes, have sex with 500 yuan once, bury the urn in the basement and seal it, and engrave the name of the deceased on the wall outside the basement, but unless the deceased is lonely, this method is generally not chosen. "
Ms. Li is puzzled by the result of the consultation. According to her family's income, she can't afford the cemetery here for her grandmother who died a few days ago. "Where can I find a funeral suitable for ordinary people, and the price will not be outrageous, but also let my loved ones finish the last journey of life?"
In the annual Tomb-Sweeping Day, the problems of "monopoly of funeral and burial" and "profiteering of funeral and burial" which have been criticized for many years have once again come into public view. On the one hand, the relevant state departments have advocated "civilized, thrifty and green funeral services" for many years to rectify the funeral service market; On the one hand, the public keeps giving out the helpless voice that "it rains in succession during the Qingming Festival, making people want to break their souls" and "they can't afford to die or be buried".
The limited investment of public finance is difficult for funeral institutions to make ends meet.
During the National People's Congress and the National People's Congress this year, some deputies and Committee members detailed the "strange phenomena" of various high funeral expenses. WU GANG, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and deputy director of the Chongqing Municipal Development and Reform Commission, listed a funeral list: an urn with a cost of only tens of yuan can be sold for three or four thousand yuan or even more expensive; A tomb may cost tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands. ...
On March 3 1 day, the reporter learned from babaoshan funeral home that "if you only choose three services: transportation, storage and cremation, it will cost about 1000 yuan; If you add services such as plastic surgery and farewell to the remains, the whole set will cost about 3,000 yuan. "
"In China, there are three ways to price funeral services. The three basic services of transportation, storage and cremation that each body must go through are priced by the government; Some extended services, such as body shaping and the use of farewell hall, are government-guided prices; Funeral supplies such as shrouds, urns and wreaths adopt market-adjusted prices. " Yang Wentao, director of the Funeral Management Department of the Social Affairs Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said in an interview with our reporter recently.
Yang Wentao believes that the "huge funeral profits" questioned by the public generally occur in extended services, and it is really helpless for funeral institutions to carry out these extended services. "From 2002 to now, the three basic services of transportation, preservation and cremation of all funeral homes in the country have lost about 640 million yuan on average every year." She calculated an account for the reporter. Since 2002, the price approved by the government has never been raised. According to the national average, the total cost of transporting a corpse to 200 yuan, 230 yuan for preservation and cremation is 430 yuan, while the actual cost of electricity, gasoline, manpower and equipment depreciation is 600 yuan to 680 yuan.
"The problem has arisen. How to fill such a huge funding gap? The central government has no investment in this area, and some local governments have difficulties. Funeral homes can only carry out other extended services. "
Yang Wentao said that when the public financial input is very thin, the pressure shifts to the funeral institutions. In fact, two-thirds of the funeral homes in China are losing money, and the profitable funeral homes are mainly concentrated in large and medium-sized cities. Funeral homes below the county level are generally unprofitable, and their operations are bleak, and many of them have even closed.
The reporter noticed that in the public impression, the funeral industry is exclusively operated by the subordinate institutions of the civil affairs department, and public opinion also summarized the root cause of "funeral profiteering" as "a monopoly and lack of competition". The Regulations on Funeral Management promulgated by the State Council 1997 stipulates that no unit or individual may build funeral facilities without approval. The construction of funeral parlours and crematoriums shall be proposed by the civil affairs departments at the county level and the people's governments of cities and autonomous prefectures divided into districts and submitted to the people's governments at the corresponding levels for examination and approval; The construction of funeral service stations and columbariums shall be examined and approved by the people's governments at the county level and the civil affairs departments of the people's governments of cities and autonomous prefectures divided into districts; Cemetery construction must be approved by the civil affairs department of the people's government at the county level and the people's governments of cities and autonomous prefectures divided into districts, and then submitted to the civil affairs department of the people's government of the province (autonomous region, city) for examination and approval.
These regulations give the civil affairs department the power of administrative examination and approval in the field of funeral services.
"However, in the process of implementation, some local civil affairs departments transformed the' access approval right' into' exclusive management right' and monopolized the funeral, and the people also accepted it in a muddle." Wang Fuzi, a professor of funeral and interment at Changsha Institute of Social Work, said.
After the implementation of the Administrative Licensing Law in 2004, the pre-approval of funeral supplies and funeral services by civil affairs departments was cancelled. "As long as there are personnel, venues and registered capital, you can register a funeral service company with the industrial and commercial department. This is a special service industry. There are no standards to refer to, and relevant policies and regulations are not perfect. How to standardize fees and ensure service quality is very difficult for the industrial and commercial departments. " An industrial and commercial administrative law enforcement officer in Beijing told reporters.
It is understood that apart from cremation, funeral services and funeral supplies have been basically liberalized. A few years ago, in order to make up for the loss of funeral homes, funeral service agencies were allowed to build their own cemeteries to generate income. Since the late 1990s, there have been more and more private cemeteries. However, the entry of private capital has not changed the situation that the funeral industry lacks competition and the service price is extremely high. Some experts have analyzed that although the intervention of private capital has broken the monopoly situation, due to the particularity of the funeral industry, the characteristics of natural monopoly are obvious. After some local private capital entered the funeral industry, private cemeteries formed an alliance with state-owned cemeteries, and funeral expenses rose instead of falling. There are still many places in the whole industry system that need to be straightened out.
Can civilized and environmentally friendly funeral forms be realized?
"Are you a dutiful son? Are you filial to your parents? Do you have the heart to let your parents live in such a small grid? " In the movie "If You Are the One", the cemetery salesman fooled the hero in this way. Many people in China are influenced by traditional ideas-after a hundred years, they want to be buried, and then they buy cemeteries or ashes.
In Yang Wentao's view, compared with transportation, preservation, cremation, plastic surgery, farewell and other funeral services, the expenses incurred in purchasing funeral supplies such as urns and cemeteries outside the funeral home are more likely to give the public the impression of "funeral profiteering". "The ultimate goal of China's funeral reform is to leave no ashes. The attitude of the civil affairs department is to discourage the phenomenon of wanting to keep ashes and cemeteries after cremation. "
"In fact, on the issue of cemetery price, the civil affairs department still hopes that consumers will change their concepts and consume rationally. 100 yuan can solve it, don't spend 10000 yuan. If you must be buried, you can choose tree burial, flower burial and lawn burial besides buying a cemetery. This is also strongly advocated by relevant state departments in recent years. " Yang Wentao said.
As the general public, can we successfully find these civilized and environmentally friendly funeral forms? Is the price acceptable? On March 3 1, the reporter called the funeral management office of Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau as an ordinary citizen and asked where there were green funeral forms such as tree burial, flower burial and lawn burial in the cemetery of Beijing.
"Only the Badaling People's Cemetery in Yanqing has it." The staff said that among the 33 operating cemeteries in Beijing, only this one can carry out tree burial, and flower burial and lawn burial are nowhere to be found. The staff of Badaling People's Cemetery told the reporter, "The tree burial fee is 7,800 yuan, that is, the tombstone lies on the ground and a pine and cypress is planted on the ground." According to the staff, ordinary cemeteries there charge 7,200 yuan, but the price of tree burial is higher than that of 600 yuan. Asked why, the answer is "we don't know the unified pricing above."
The reporter then called several cemeteries and cemeteries, all of which said that "there was no tree burial, flower burial and lawn burial". The staff of Paradise Cemetery in Daxing District, Beijing told the reporter that "the places for tree burial and lawn burial were used up as early as 2006 and were not built again."
When the reporter learned about the price of ashes, he found that the price of ashes was relatively low, but the quantity was limited. The staff of Wan 'an Cemetery in Haidian District, Beijing said, "You can buy it for 3,600 yuan per floor, but this year's books have been booked, with only a dozen each year. You can't choose, you can only pick at will. This is the unified plan above. " If you choose a tomb, the cheapest tomb in Wan 'an Cemetery is 654.38+ 10,000 yuan/square meter, and the material is "pure natural stone". Asked about the most expensive price, he said: "There is no upper limit, almost 3 square meters, more than 600,000."
These phenomena have attracted the attention of some local governments. According to Yang Wentao, at present, Beijing, Liaoning, Jiangxi and other places have introduced some funeral policies to benefit the people.
Evergreen Garden Ashes Forest Base, located in Daludian Village, Chaoyang District, Beijing, is the first public cemetery in Beijing. At present, it has been completed, mainly in the form of ashes wall, providing public welfare and low-cost funeral services for the registered population in Beijing who died after this year 1, and exempting low-income residents, key entitled groups and other groups from service management fees. At the same time, Beijing took the lead in realizing the same standard and full coverage of funeral subsidies in urban and rural areas. From 1 this year, all urban and rural residents with Beijing hukou can enjoy a one-time fixed funeral subsidy of 5,000 yuan per person when they die.
The reform of funeral system calls for national legislation.
Many people in the industry are full of expectations for the revised Regulations on Funeral Management. Zhang Hongchang, vice president of china funeral association, once told the media that legislation should be passed as soon as possible to clarify where and what the government is in charge of the funeral industry, to ensure the orderly and benign operation of the industry, to safeguard the funeral consumption rights of ordinary people and to protect the legitimate rights and interests of funeral service providers.
Yang Wentao said, "The fundamental reason for the chaos in the current funeral service market is the poor system. Specifically, there is no clear distinction between government-priced basic funeral services and market-adjusted services. " According to her introduction, the next step of funeral reform will be to explore the separation of basic funeral services from the entire funeral service chain in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, and gradually realize the equalization of basic funeral services. The administration of the civil affairs department only involves three basic services: transportation, storage and cremation. Other services are given to the market and all kinds of capital can enter. The market provides consumers with personalized services, and consumers make choices according to their own abilities.
"At present, the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Finance have reached an understanding. The Regulations on Funeral Management, which is being revised, stipulates that the basic funeral service expenses for groups with special difficulties should be paid by the government, which is a great progress." Yang Wentao said.
In May 2007, the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council promulgated the Regulations on Funeral Management (Revised Draft for Comment), soliciting opinions from the whole society, clearly stipulating that "funeral parlours are public welfare and non-profit organizations that provide services of transporting, refrigerating and cremating the remains", and at the same time stipulating that cemetery business units should sell graves with death certificates issued by users, and not sell graves for those who have not issued death certificates. If there is a violation, "the county-level civil affairs department will have the right to impose a fine of 6.5438+10,000 yuan but less than 500,000 yuan on the cemetery business unit." This penalty measure also applies to "selling land for graves that exceeds the specified tomb area and changing the cemetery construction permit without authorization."
It is understood that there are more than 10000 opinions from all walks of life. The State Council Legislative Affairs Office, together with the Ministry of Civil Affairs, classified and summarized these opinions, held several symposiums and solicited opinions from people from all walks of life in the funeral industry in china funeral association and many places.
As early as 2005, the State Council included the revision of the Regulations on Funeral Management in its legislative plan, and this year it was included in the first-level legislative plan of the State Council. According to industry insiders, the development of funeral industry, the differences in economic environment and customs, and the attitude of local civil affairs departments towards "market-led" or "government-led" determine the difficulty of revising the new regulations.