China promulgates funeral service standards
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China's Ministry of Civil Affairs on Saturday promulgated a series of standards on funeral services, ahead of the traditional Qingming Festival, or the Tomb-Sweeping Day that falls on Tuesday, aiming to regulate a sector troubled by unreasonably high prices and cheating.
The seven standards, the first of their kind, cover the entire procedures of a funeral, including farewell ceremonies, body cremation, ashes storage and cremains disposal. They will take effect on Tuesday.
Among them, there is also a standard for scattering ashes at sea to promote environment-friendly funerals in Beijing, Shanghai and some coastal cities.
Zhang Mingliang, director of the ministry's social affairs department, said the new standards will improve funeral services and safeguard public interests.
According to the ministry, 11 provinces have issued favorable funeral policies for underprivileged families by investing 791 million yuan ($119.8 million) annually to benefit 473 million people.
Policies include exempting funeral fees for poor people in both rural and urban areas, giving funeral subsidies to local residents and subsidizing environment-friendly funerals, said the ministry.
The ministry, in cooperation with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think-tank, also issued a green book on China's funeral sector development on Tuesday, calling for improvements in the supervision mechanism of the funeral market and the early introduction of the Burial Law.
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