Lin Min

    JUST as we have found ourselves deeply indebted as a result of skyrocketing housing prices, news last week about exorbitant graveyard prices and funeral costs added to worries that even death won’t cure our financial distress.

    Wang Chang, a resident in Yiyang, Hunan Province, spent more than 60,000 yuan (US$9,230) for a funeral service. The flowers cost her nearly 20,000 yuan — the prices at the funeral home were several times those at regular flower shops. She wanted to save money, but the funeral home said she could not bring flowers and other items purchased elsewhere.

    The outrageous bills for Wang and millions of other mourners in China revealed a decades-old monopoly that has deprived consumers’ right to choose and a failure on the part of regulators to ensure a competitive and fair market. Chinese funeral homes are run by civil affairs bureaus, who also act as regulators. This is a typical case of the player also being the referee.

    This situation has led not only to exorbitant prices, but also corruption. In a recent tell-all interview, Huang Yanling, former head of the Huadu District Funeral Home in Guangzhou who was jailed for bribery, said the civil affairs bureau took money from the funeral home to pay for the costs of parties and other activities, and that the profit margin for funeral items reached 150 percent (and even higher because some flowers are used multiple times for different customers).

    Huang is only one of many funeral home directors who have been found guilty of corruption. Zeng Zhuonan, the head of the funeral home in Panyu District, Guangzhou, was last year sentenced to 11 years behind bars for accepting bribes worth 857,800 yuan from suppliers and embezzling another 428,600 yuan of public funds. Officials have fallen from grace as a result of corruption at funeral homes throughout the land, from the northeastern province of Heilongjiang to the eastern provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and the southwest province of Sichuan. All these cases shared the same story: Suppliers bribe to win orders from funeral homes, and at the same time, huge profits and lack of transparency make it a breeding ground for embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds.

    Basic funeral services and columbarium niches should be part of the public services that the government provides at affordable rates. A draft revision to the outdated Funeral Management Regulations made public in 2007 rightly stipulates that funeral homes should not be for profit, and bars graveyards from being traded. Yet the legislation of the revision has stalled, reportedly because of resistance from the vested interest group who is reluctant to be weaned off huge profits. Funeral homes thus become one of the few industries that remain stubbornly resistant to reform and unscrupulously cling to monopoly. Although some service providers are allowed to compete, a lack of proper regulation has led to exorbitant fees and dishonest practices.

    This vested interest means unreasonable costs for bereaved residents. It has become apparent that unless funeral homes become nonprofit organizations and competitors are allowed into an orderly, well-regulated market, customers will have to continue paying excessive bills.

    Just across the border in Hong Kong, the government has ensured a competitive market with seven funeral homes and 75 registered service providers — with affordable price for cremation and funeral service as low as HK$11,180, including costs for dress, cosmetics, cremation, a coffin and an urn. A public columbarium niche costs between HK$2,800 and HK$4,000 for permanent use although a shortage has resulted in a waiting time. This is a good example of competent regulation that ensures low-cost basic service while allowing the market to provide luxury services for the rich.

    As the Qingming Festival passes, the financial implications of reaching the end of life’s journey will likely drift off the public’s radar soon. But if the regulators remain happy seeing funeral homes rubbing salt into the wounds of bereaved customers, there is no reason for lawmakers to sit idle. The death knell will be sounded of this immoral monopoly and extortion, sooner or later. But it will be a saddening thing for the Chinese nation if similar stories are reported again next Qingming Festival.

    (The author is editor of the Shenzhen Daily News Desk.)