■ Editorials
The price of funeral services is directly related to the vital interests of the people, and it should be clear about the charges.
With the dawn approaching, the topic of funeral charges continues to rise. On March 3, at the regular press conference of the Ministry of Civil Affairs in the first quarter of 31, funeral service institutions were required to strictly implement relevant management service standards and specifications, and ensure that service items, charging standards and measures to benefit the people were publicly announced. At the same time, market supervision departments in many places have also issued relevant reminders in advance to regulate possible industry chaos. Recently, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Market Regulation will focus on the issue of funeral service prices that citizens are concerned about, focusing on the service charges of funeral service business places such as funeral homes, commercial cemeteries (cemeteries) and hospital mortuaries, as well as the sales prices of funeral supplies, and strictly investigate illegal charges. The Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Market Regulation also issued a reminder letter for funeral service prices.
The excessively high prices of funeral services, or the temporary coercive price increases, make many people miserable. In recent years, many places have exposed high-priced funeral charges, which have repeatedly stung the public. For example, last year, the sky-high funeral fee of "3,3 yuan for 8 days" of the Third Hospital of Beijing Medical University caused a storm of public opinion. Not long ago, the Jiangsu Provincial Market Supervision Bureau announced five typical cases of illegal prices of funeral services, involving issues such as selling goods at a markup in addition to the list price and selling tombs beyond the standard.
The funeral fee chaos does not start today, but has been around for a long time. Just because people generally hold the psychology of "the dead are big" and "entering the soil is safe", in addition, a local funeral institution often has a monopoly position in the market, "only this one, no semicolon", many people do not have more choices. This also objectively contributes to the arbitrariness of the price of some funeral institutions. In this regard, it is necessary to strengthen industry governance and strictly investigate illegal charges for funeral services, so that the deceased can truly get peace.
Specifically, first of all, we must pay close attention to key links and key parts to strictly investigate price violations. From hospital morgues to cemeteries; From public columbariums to operational cemeteries; From funeral supplies to related services, a link and a part are not spared, see if these institutions are strictly in accordance with the regulations to clearly mark the price? Is there a private name that increases the fee? Do hospital morgues offer for-profit funeral services? These issues are directly related to the vital interests of the people, and it is reasonable to make clear the charges.
Then it is necessary to seriously investigate and deal with illegal funeral service institutions, and send a clear signal of governance with "post-incident punishment". As mentioned above, in the typical case released by the Jiangsu Provincial Market Supervision Bureau, it can be seen that the funeral "one-stop" service with a price tag of 1732,10600 yuan was actually charged 6,7 yuan, which was 149 times more than the charge; The funeral home in Jurong City charged farewell hall rental fees and cremation fees beyond the standard, and the illegal income in 8 years was as high as <>.<> million yuan...
The severity of the behavior is shocking, and the relevant punishments are timely and simple, not only ordering them to return illegal gains, or confiscating them, but also funeral institutions that charge fees indiscriminately often face high fines. Previously, related news reports such as "overcharging 260 yuan and being fined 50,<> yuan" sent a clear signal to strictly investigate the funeral chaos. At this clear juncture, the supervision of funeral service institutions must maintain a "strict investigation" attitude and "severe punishment".
In addition, in view of the price issue of cemeteries, which is highly concerned by the public, the role of price macro-control should also be brought into play. For the behavior of inflated prices of tombs, civil affairs departments and relevant functional institutions should intervene in a timely manner to intervene in price; At the same time, it is necessary to strictly crack down on acts such as reselling and speculation, pyramid schemes or disguised pyramid schemes, tombs and ashes storage compartments.
It should be seen that as the final destination of life, the cemetery is indeed special, but the more special, the more we cannot allow the market to arbitrarily inflate prices, thereby increasing the burden on the people, and even making people feel "unable to die". Actively adjusting prices and ensuring the supply of medium and low-priced burial places is itself a kind of people's livelihood first.
Of course, in recent years, after the active governance of local authorities, the funeral service market is indeed more stable and orderly than before, during which there are some reckless price violations, and some hidden areas that were previously unobserved, such as hospital morgues, are often quickly investigated.
However, it should also be noted that regulating the price of funeral services should also be based on normal governance, and it should be strictly investigated and vigorously grasped on weekdays. People's life, old age, illness and death will not pick the day and choose the time, correspondingly, regulatory law enforcement must also be full-time, seamless, leaving no dead ends.
As far as the general public is concerned, it is also necessary to have more awareness of rights, do not be bound by traditional concepts such as thick burial, and once unreasonable and illegal charging behavior is discovered, we must have the courage to claim rights and actively complain and report.