Systemic problems of the Russian funeral industry. Rules for the provision of funeral services

Vladimir Putin ordered to improve the quality and availability of funeral services, essentially proposing to extend the Moscow experience of providing them throughout Russia. In the capital, the state is actively involved in organizing burials, which, however, does not solve the problem of the activities of gray agents. Their turnover in the country reaches 120–150 billion rubles.

Kommersant got acquainted with the list of instructions to improve the availability and quality of funeral services that President Vladimir Putin gave to the government. The list was based on the results of an audit of the implementation of relevant legislation, which was carried out by the Presidential Control Department in the first half of 2017. The instructions involve the free organization of funeral services within the framework of a guaranteed list on the “one window” principle using the number pension insurance. Other tasks include an inventory of existing and abandoned cemeteries, the formation of a unified approach to the provision of funeral services throughout the country (creation of specialized services, determination of the cost of services, accounting for citizens responsible for burial places). The president also expects the government to complete the development of a law on funerals. The government press service confirmed receipt of the instructions, referring other questions to the Ministry of Construction. They did not respond to Kommersant’s request.

The problems in the sphere of funeral services today come down to inconsistency in the actions of authorities, the lack of uniform standards for the provision of services and outdated legislative framework(the market is regulated by law from 1996), according to the materials of the Presidential Control Department. They noticed that from the budgets different levels 20 billion rubles are allocated annually for the payment of social benefits for funerals (within the guaranteed list). Market size paid services three times more - 60 billion rubles. (Rosstat data for 2015).

In most regions, conditions have not been created for the provision of funeral services within the guaranteed list. There is no necessary information for the population; in every sixth region there are no specialized services that can provide services (often their functions are performed by private business or institutions in the field of transport and heat supply). Those who decide to use the guaranteed list have to fill out more than five documents in different authorities. There are regions where the cost of the package is not established; in others, its cost and the amount of benefits that are paid to compensate for expenses vary.

Andrey Chibis, Deputy Minister of Construction and Housing and Communal Services, in 2014

Our task is to create a civilized and comfortable market for consumers. Today it represents complete chaos

The quality of funeral services within the guaranteed list may vary even in the same region. “In the Komi Republic, in the urban districts of Syktyvkar, Sosnogorsk and Ukhta, provision is made for an unupholstered wooden coffin, and in the municipal districts of Priluzsky and Ust-Kulomsky - a wooden coffin upholstered with fabric,” the presidential control department gives an example. There are also discrepancies in the organization of loading and unloading work - in some places it is performed by relatives instead of specialized services.

All this has led to a growing share of gray agents in the funeral services market, whose work costs 10–15 times more. The volume of this unaccounted segment of services in the control department is estimated at 120–150 billion rubles.

To solve the problems associated with the current practice of reserving burial places on a paid basis (in some cases it costs more than 1 million rubles), it is necessary to create commercial cemeteries, according to the control department. Another problem there is the lack full list burial places. According to the Ministry of Construction, there are 80 thousand cemeteries in Russia, and taking into account abandoned and ownerless ones, this figure is several times higher.

The listed problems in the field of funeral services are common to the entire country, says Andrei Stoskov, president of the Union of Ritual and Funeral Service Organizations in Moscow. “But given the capital’s experience in this area, it is difficult to believe in the effectiveness of the proposed measures,” he says. Moscow specialized services historically provide funeral services at the stage of organizing the funeral (that is, up to the cemetery gates) and according to a guaranteed list (its amount this year is about 16 thousand rubles). The capital has its own law regulating the funeral services market, which, if successfully implemented, was planned to be scaled throughout the country. There is also a city enterprise, the State Budgetary Institution “Ritual,” which has become almost a market monopolist. “None of these measures helped solve the problem of gray agents,” says Mr. Stoskov. The share of orders processed by them is estimated at 80%.

Ekaterina Gerashchenko

Based on the characteristics of the ritual and funeral sphere and the need to resolve existing problems in the industry, it is necessary, first of all, to ensure coordination of the work of local government bodies, private, municipal and state enterprises. Such coordination is most appropriate through public-private partnerships as the most important tool for resolving industry problems and stimulating its development. Existing system financing of material and technical objects for ritual and funeral purposes, based on the allocation of funds from local budgets, does not ensure their proper development, or even normative functioning. There is often not enough money for the improvement of new cemeteries and crematoria. Resolving this problem is also possible through public-private partnerships, which are increasingly being implemented in many sectors of the economy. In relation to the ritual and funeral sphere, public-private partnership can be implemented in the following areas:

Private financing: business participation in the construction of new

cemeteries, crematoria, pantheons, tombs, columbar walls, crypts; development of road transport and transport for transporting bodies of the deceased from the place of death to a medical institution; development of a production base for the production of objects for ritual and funeral purposes (coffins, wreaths, photos, gravestones, etc.).

Municipal financing: construction of new municipal, state cemeteries and crematoria; maintenance and improvement of municipal, state cemeteries, military memorial complexes, sites; creation and maintenance of morgues of medical and preventive institutions; creation and maintenance of pantheons.

Formation in the regions of Trustee (expert) councils on funeral matters, which include representatives of municipal and/or state government bodies on a parity basis; municipal (state) and private enterprises of the ritual and funeral sphere; public and religious organizations. Such a Council takes part in the discussion of all documents on the development and functioning of the system of ritual and funeral services before their adoption by the relevant governing bodies. Thus, the joint participation of private and municipal structures in the development and adoption of all the main regulatory and directive documents regulating the activities of industry enterprises in the regions is ensured.

Formation of specialized services for funeral matters.

Constant interaction of specialized services on funeral matters with state (municipal) authorities, in particular with the departments (departments) of the Civil Registry Office. Interaction is also carried out with government agencies healthcare, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rospotrebnadzor, etc.

Contractual interaction cooperation municipal enterprises ritual and funeral sphere (as a rule, these are cemeteries) and business societies, partnerships that accept orders for ritual and funeral services. Orders are executed on the basis of cooperation between private and municipal enterprises in the industry, in accordance with the concluded agreement between them.

Ritual certification funeral services provided for by the law of the Russian Federation of January 12, 1996 No. 8 Federal Law “On burial and funeral business”: Article 17. Sanitary and environmental requirements for maintenance. Clause 6. Items and substances used during burial (coffins, urns, wreaths, embalming agents) are allowed for use if there is a certificate confirming their sanitary, hygienic and environmental safety. However, in practice this rule hardly works. Through the interaction of public and private structures, certification should be fully operational and become a powerful lever for improving the quality of ritual and funeral services.

Creation of voluntary formations of enterprises and firms in the ritual and funeral sphere: Unions, Associations, Corporations, etc. They include both private and municipal organizations.

It is advisable to expand the existing powers of the subjects of funeral business management:

identify the responsible federal executive body and instruct it to develop a unified policy for the development of the funeral business;

to legislate the powers of the executive authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation to organize funerals;

clearly state the powers of municipalities in the Law of the Russian Federation on burial;

legislate the powers and responsibilities in the area of ​​creating non-state funeral facilities;

legislate the introduction of mandatory self-regulation in the funeral industry;

determine the procedure for the creation and maintenance of religious cemeteries;

legislate the right to own and use burial sites, establish the possibility of creating consumer unions.

Based on reality market economy and the peculiarities of the sphere of ritual and funeral services, local governments, on a legislative basis, must solve a set of tasks to ensure the uninterrupted and effective functioning of the industry in the territory municipality:

1. Arranging the burial of the deceased. Any deceased person must be buried with dignity, regardless of the financial capabilities of him or his loved ones who took responsibility for the burial. It is imperative to ensure 100% completion of this task: it must be solved with the understanding that funeral services are the only type of household services that are provided in full regardless of the material wealth of the customer for each service object, i.e. in relation to each deceased. The burial of unidentified bodies is carried out at the expense of the state in specially designated areas of municipal cemeteries or in individual cemeteries.

The burial of deceased low-income citizens is carried out free of charge by any specialized funeral service. Burial of military personnel, military pensioners, participants of the Great Patriotic War carried out at the expense of the State in accordance with the established procedure.

2. Provision equal conditions for all participants in the funeral services market.

3. Ensuring regulation of the funeral services market in conditions where licensing of these services has been abolished. Accordingly, it should be implemented Government support specialized services for funeral matters. At the same time, it is necessary to limit the number of such services, keeping in mind the peculiarity of this market: the number of orders for disposal in a given region is a constant value.

Accordingly, the quantity commercial organizations Funeral services to the population should be constant and small in order to fully meet the needs of customers. World practice confirms this conclusion. Funeral business is the prerogative of municipal authorities, whose main task is to ensure a balance between meeting the needs for ritual and funeral services and the number of organizations providing such services.

4. Increasing the role of organizations that include cemeteries as the most important socially significant objects. Accordingly, such organizations need to be supported, including: financing the maintenance and improvement of cemeteries; ensure timely payment for burials, free of charge, of unidentified bodies and deceased low-income citizens; finance the purchase of equipment, reconstruction of crematoria, installation, commissioning of new furnaces; creation of new and expansion of existing cemeteries; organize personnel training, exchange of experience, elimination of consequences natural disasters; provide moral support to funeral service workers.

5. The main task to be solved is to ensure social protection of low-income citizens when providing them with funeral services and at the same time increase the level of quality of the services provided (cemeteries and crematorium services). For these purposes, it is advisable in the regions to legislatively establish a procedure for providing social package funeral services at a fixed state (municipal) price.

6. To overcome and eliminate the emerging shortage of land for burying the dead in coffins, primarily through the development of cremation of the dead. There should be a mechanism for using cemeteries where it works constantly. In particular, through the formation of family (ancestral) burials.

Thus, there is an urgent need to develop uniform norms and rules for the provision of funeral services not only at the federal, but also at the municipal level. Existing complex legislative problems can be resolved by preparing a new edition of the Federal Law “On Funeral Business”, which will also require simultaneous amendments to the Land and Town planning codes Russian Federation and some other federal laws. The adoption of such rules will be a powerful tool for streamlining this specific cluster of the economy. Another serious step towards putting things in order in the funeral business could be collaboration all funeral agencies on the basis of non-profit partnership.

According to current legislation, the State guarantees the burial of every citizen of the Russian Federation. Thus, the federal law “On burial and funeral business”, as well as the law “On burial and funeral business in the city of Moscow” determine the procedure for organizing funeral business, providing funeral services and social assistance relatives of the deceased.

Currently, the following funeral services are provided in Moscow:

• accepting orders and concluding an agreement (including agency services of order takers (agents) of city specialized funeral services) for organizing a funeral;
• provision of burial and reburial services
• provision of cremation services;
• registration of rights to use plots for the creation of family (ancestral) burial grounds;
• transportation of bodies (remains) of the deceased (dead)
• production and soldering of zinc coffins;
• sanitary and cosmetic treatment of bodies;
• embalming;
• production of coffins (except zinc) and urns for burial of ashes;
• production and installation of grave structures and crypts;
• production of other funeral accessories;
• design of inscriptions on monuments and memorial plaques;
• production and fastening of photoceramic products on monuments;
• care of burial and burial sites.

You can read about the first actions in the event of a person’s death.

Burial places

Currently, Moscow provides for both traditional burial with a coffin in the ground and cremation. In accordance with these two main types of burial, special burial places have been created on the territory of Moscow and the Moscow region: cemeteries, open columbariums and closed types, areas for scattering ashes.

According to current legislation, citizens of the Russian Federation permanently residing in the territory of the city of Moscow, Free plot is guaranteed land for burial. Free plots are provided exclusively in open cemeteries in the capital. Currently, only three cemeteries in Moscow have open status: Domodedovo Cemetery, Perepechinskoye Cemetery and Bogorodskoye Cemetery in the Noginsky district of the Moscow region. All other cemeteries in Moscow are closed; they carry out exclusively related burials, as well as burials in landscaped (so-called “service”) areas.

When providing a new plot in open cemeteries, citizens responsible for burial pay exclusively the cost of burial services. Thus, the cost of burial services at the Perepechinskoye cemetery is limited to the cost of digging a grave and, according to the official price list, amounts to 9,070 rubles.

To register a new burial plot, you must use the services of a funeral service order taker or contact the cemetery administration yourself, bringing with you the stamp of death certificate and the applicant’s passport. When registering a burial in a related plot, to specified documents a passport for the grave and documents confirming family ties the deceased with those previously buried in this area. Re-registration of the person responsible for the site requires the presentation of documents confirming the relationship of the new person in charge with the old one and with all those buried. Otherwise, re-registration of liability is possible only by court decision. In addition, when registering a related burial, it is necessary to keep in mind that, according to established sanitary standards, repeated burials are carried out after at least 15 years from the date of the last burial.

Some closed cemeteries also provide new burial places by redeveloping the territory, which is part of the Moscow Government program “On the creation of family (tribal) burial places.” Special training plot is reflected in the cost of burial services, as a result of which the cost of burial in closed cemeteries in Moscow is significantly higher than in open ones.

In addition to the above burial places, citizens of the Russian Federation permanently residing in the city of Moscow are provided with plots of land in public cemeteries for the creation of family (tribal) burials. In this case, the site has an area sufficient for several burials.

ATTENTION! The plot in the cemetery does not become property, but is transferred to the person responsible for the burial for indefinite use as long as the grave is properly cared for. Any attempts by private individuals to sell burial plots are illegal and cannot be formalized legally. All issues regarding the registration of burial plots are resolved exclusively through the cemetery administration. Don't let yourself be deceived! Such “transactions” invariably end for the “buyers” with the loss of significant amounts paid to the scammers.

Cremation

In addition to traditional burial, cremation services are also available to residents of the capital. There are three crematoria in the capital: Mitinsky crematorium, Nikolo-Arkhangelsk crematorium and Khovansky crematorium. Relatives of the deceased can choose any of three crematoria. The cost of cremation is the same for all three crematoria and amounts to 3600 rubles, including musical accompaniment.

If cremation has not been pre-ordered, you must arrive at the crematorium before 15.00 to complete the relevant documents. To place an order for cremation, you must provide a stamped death certificate, a passport of the person responsible for cremation and an invoice for funeral services.

For pre-order cremation, it is necessary to use the services of funeral agents of the city specialized service for funeral matters in the city of Moscow. Funeral agents have the opportunity to order cremation at a selected crematorium through the Central Dispatch Service. In this case, there is no need to come to the crematorium in advance.

The urn containing ashes can be collected three days after cremation. To receive an urn with ashes, you must provide a stamped death certificate, a passport of the person responsible for cremation, a certificate of cremation (received on the day of cremation) and a receipt for payment for the services of the cemetery where the urn with ashes will be buried. If the urn with ashes is transported to another city, it is necessary to fill out an application indicating the burial place.

The urn with ashes can be placed in an open or closed columbarium, or buried in the ground. Burial of an urn with ashes in a cemetery (in a columbarium) is carried out upon presentation of a stamped death certificate, a certificate of cremation and a passport of the person receiving the urn.

The person organizing the funeral

As a rule, the person responsible for organizing the funeral is a relative of the deceased. However, the law does not prohibit a person who was not related to the deceased from taking responsibility for organizing the funeral. The person who has assumed the responsibility for organizing the funeral must carry out the entire process of organizing the funeral, including: processing the documents necessary for the burial, obtaining a stamp death certificate, death certificate, funeral benefits, including taking responsibility for the burial place . In the absence of persons who have taken on the responsibility for organizing the funeral, it is carried out by the city's specialized funeral services.

The person who has taken upon himself the responsibility to carry out the burial of the deceased is guaranteed free registration and issuance of documents necessary for burial, as well as the opportunity to keep the body in the morgue for up to seven days from the moment the cause of death is established in the event of circumstances arising that complicate the burial. Besides; if the search for relatives or other persons responsible for the burial is difficult, given period may be extended to 14 days.

Social benefit for funeral

The legislation of the Russian Federation provides for the provision of social assistance in the form of payment of funeral benefits. Funeral benefits are paid to both working and non-working citizens. The difference in the payment of funeral benefits for working and non-working citizens lies in the amount of the benefit and the source of payment of the benefit.

Thus, in the event of the death of a working citizen of the Russian Federation, benefits are paid according to last place employment of the deceased. In the event of the death of a pensioner, an unemployed person who is not a pensioner, as well as in the event of birth dead child after 196 days of pregnancy, payment of funeral benefits is carried out by the authorities social protection.

Current size social benefits for burial in Moscow is 16277 rubles 28 kopecks. The payment is made on the day of contacting the social security authorities on the basis of a death certificate.

You can read more about the procedure for paying social benefits for funerals.

Free funeral

An alternative to receiving social benefits is a free funeral. To carry out such a funeral, the relatives of the deceased contact a specialized funeral service, which organizes the funeral free of charge. In this case, the state reimburses the specialized funeral service for funeral expenses not exceeding the amount of the corresponding social benefit. However, not all funeral services provide free funeral services.

It should be noted that citizens who received services for the free burial of the deceased are not paid a social benefit for burial.

IN guaranteed list of services provided free of charge include:

• preparation of documents necessary for burial,
• provision and delivery of ritual accessories (coffin, bedspread, slippers),
• transportation of the body of the deceased to the cemetery (crematorium),
• burial (cremation followed by the release of an urn with ashes).

Additional services and accessories (hearse transportation to the church and return flight, wreaths and mourning ribbons, morgue services, etc.) are paid for by the persons organizing the funeral.

You can read more about the procedure for organizing a funeral free of charge.

Burial of unclaimed and unidentified dead

In accordance with current legislation, the state guarantees the burial of every citizen of the Russian Federation. In the absence of the person responsible for the burial, or if it is impossible for him to carry out the burial, the burial is carried out by city specialized funeral services by placing the body (remains) in the ground after at least ten days from the date of death.

The burial of the deceased, whose identity has not been established by internal affairs bodies within ten days from the moment of discovery of the body (remains), is carried out by specialized funeral services after twenty days from the moment of discovery of the body by interring the body (remains) in specially created cemeteries.

Unclaimed and unidentified bodies of the deceased from all Moscow morgues are sent to the Lianozovskoe corpse storage facility (Moscow, Dubninskaya St., 83a).

Experts spoke about the main problems of the Russian funeral industry, which needs reform, at the press conference “The crisis of the funeral industry in Russia. Its causes, problems and ways out." Today, according to the vice-president of the Union of Funeral Organizations and Crematoria, Alexey Suloev,

There are six main problems in the industry: corruption in the sale of death information, lack of land for new burials, elimination of the system for training funeral service agents, conflict of interests in healthcare and the funeral business, uncontrolled access to the market for everyone, lack of public and government control.

One of the most pressing problems in the industry is the sale of death information. How this system works: a person dies, his relatives call “03”, from there the call goes to the ambulance team on duty, then to the department of accounting, analysis, mortality and transportation of the dead, then the information goes to the “corpse transport” team, and then to the workers morgues that sell information. Information on hospital mortality is sold through the doctors on duty, the heads of the pathology department and the morgue orderly on duty.

The price of such information is 20 thousand rubles. Information about a hospital death costs 6 thousand rubles.

“Information about home mortality today can easily fall into the hands of unscrupulous clients. Today in Russia the fine for purchasing information about a death is 5 thousand rubles; according to the law in France and Germany, this entails a 100 thousand euro fine and five years in prison. The FAS does not consider it necessary to stipulate in the law that it is developing to introduce liability for the purchase of information about death,” Suloev said.

The expert cited some statistics from the funeral industry. It turns out that million-plus cities provide 35% (14 billion rubles) of the revenue for funeral services, the remaining 65% (26 billion rubles) are dispersed throughout Russia. This is the amount that legal companies receive.

And the revenue volume of illegal businesses ranges from 80 billion to 200 billion rubles. According to him, in the United States the official market is, in ruble terms, 480 billion.

“Today, almost all commercial businesses in this industry pay no taxes. When you have to pay bribes all the time, it is also very difficult to pay taxes. Therefore, from year to year there are fewer and fewer legal companies, and more and more illegal ones.

In Moscow, the shadow market for funeral services is more than 60%.

Just four years ago, this market accounted for no more than 30%,” Suloev said.

The cost of a full package of funeral services in Russia averages $830. For comparison, in China it is $1,200, in the UK it is $9,000, and in the USA it is $13,000.

According to Suloev, in Moscow, 43% of the deaths (50,016 people) this year were buried in coffins in Moscow cemeteries, 29% (33,741 people) were buried in urns with ashes. The remaining 28% (32,443 people) are taken for burial in other regions. “The last point is not entirely correct information, this simply cannot happen.

There is no accounting system, and we can only guess where every third dead person in Moscow goes,”

- says Suloev. Therefore, according to the expert, it is very difficult to calculate the amount of land that is needed for the deceased. “I read an interview with two officials the other day. An official from Moscow says that 7 hectares of land are needed per year for 120 thousand deaths, an official from the Moscow region says that 25 hectares of land are needed for 96 thousand deaths.

“There are no standards today,” says Suloev. “This is an undoubted factor of corruption - 30 thousand dead people are buried illegally every year in Moscow. No one can say who buried them, where they were buried, although they are usually buried in cemeteries in Moscow and the Moscow region,” said Vladimir Slepak, a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, vice-president of the Union of Consumers of the Russian Federation.

“Today we need a new edition of the law “On burial and funeral affairs”; the old one was adopted in 1996. None of the departments oversaw the funeral industry all these years. The situation in the industry worsened after the cancellation of licensing for the provision of funeral services,”

- Slepak noted.

According to Suloev, the courts make directly opposite decisions based on this law. “In particular, one of the courts decided that funeral services in Russia can be provided by anyone; a week later, another court decided that only specialized offices can provide services. FAS and Moscow are guided by the first court decision. Because of this, in three years we have achieved first place in the world in terms of the number of agents per deceased person. In Moscow today there are eight agents per deceased, while in Paris - 1.6 agents per deceased, in Vienna and Barcelona - 1 agent, in the USA - 1.8 agents per deceased.

In three years, the number of ritual organizations has increased from 20 to 500. The number of bribes they give has increased by the same amount,”

- said Suloev.

According to Slepak, main problem is that in Russia there is no uniform standard for the provision of funeral services. “We are the only country in the world where there is not a single government agency that would oversee this activity. We have this entire industry given over to municipalities that do not have the opportunity to carry out this work,” added Suloev.

“There is absolutely no general line - state policy in the field of funeral business. The attitude towards burial is a matter of basic moral values, around which society is built.

The general line must be extended for centuries,” said Anton Avdeev, chairman of the trade union of funeral organizations.

Suloev said that they have long been raising the problem of lack of land for burials. “We said that there was enough land left for two or three years, but officials told us that this was not true, that there would be enough land for 15 years. But today in Moscow you can only bury in one cemetery - Perepechinskoye. There are also Domodedovskoye and Alabushevskoye, but the first is just a plot of forest, not a cemetery, and in the second cemetery, mostly residents of Zelenograd are buried,” Suloev said.

“In the Moscow region, officials have set a task: to intensify the development of the cremation business to solve the problem of the shortage of land plots for the placement of new cemeteries. How to activate this? The easiest thing is probably to change religion from Orthodoxy to Buddhism, then we will immediately solve this problem,” added Suloev.

In Germany, after the war, according to the expert, not a single cemetery was built, because different burial standards apply there. According to Suloev, 37% of places in Moscow cemeteries are abandoned. “The whole world is moving towards leasing these plots. Nobody here solves this problem. As a result, this problem is only aggravated by the sale of plots by close relatives for burial,” Suloev said. —

The new governor of the Moscow region proposed solving land problems by building multi-story crypts, like in Spain, which sometimes reach the size of a five-story building - niches where coffins are inserted.

But such burials are not typical for Russians.”

“We need to change the legislation so as not to endlessly waste land. We are the only country in the world that allocates so much land for cemeteries. But there is no land, so we must follow not the path of expanding cemeteries, but the European path of using land already allocated for cemeteries. It is necessary to increase the depth of the grave, to use abandoned graves,” Suloev said. According to Slepak, it is necessary to be able to use abandoned graves for new burials.

“Today, most likely, it is in such graves that those 30% of people who are allegedly taken to the regions are buried. We live in a systemic crisis in this area,

- says Slepak. “Today people don’t understand what a burial place is; they think it’s their property. That’s why we periodically see advertisements: “I’m selling my grandfather’s grave.” We will have to, based on the principles of humanity, convey to everyone that society has given its member a free burial place, so relatives must look after the grave. If there are no people responsible for the grave, then there is no problem finding new ones.” Suloev explained how the system of using abandoned graves works: on the back of the new monument, the names of everyone who was previously buried in this place are simply written.

Now the FAS is preparing a bill on reforming the industry, and it is better developed, according to experts. “FAS decided to introduce private cemeteries and crematoria, but they have been in Russia for a long time, although they are not 100% private cemeteries. But for some reason, the FAS, despite the opinion of the industry, did not consider it necessary to return the licensing of funeral services. So we are against this version of the law,” Suloev said. The second law is being prepared in Moscow, in particular, the city has proposed introducing licensing for the capital's funeral homes.

In connection with the requests received by the FAS Russia regarding the activities of organizations in the funeral services market, including the specifics of the activities of a specialized funeral service, and in order to ensure the correct and uniform application of antimonopoly legislation by the territorial bodies of the FAS Russia, we consider it necessary to provide the following clarifications.

In accordance with the provisions of the Federal Law of January 12, 1996 No. 8-FZ “On Burial and Funeral Business” (hereinafter referred to as the Law on Burial), the organization of funeral business is carried out by the authorities state power, as well as local authorities, taking into account compliance with the guarantees formulated in Chapter 2 of the Burial Law.

The Institute of Specialized Services was introduced federal legislation(Articles 9 and 25 of the Law on Burial, Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated June 29, 1996 No. 1001 “On guarantees of the rights of citizens to provide burial services for the dead”) in order to ensure state social guarantees for the burial of relatives or providing close relatives and other persons with a guaranteed list of burial services free of charge within the amount of social benefits for burial. At the same time, the specialized service is reimbursed for the costs of each burial from the budget from the amounts of unpaid social benefits for burial.

Article 10 of the Burial Law provides that the relatives of the deceased who carried out the burial at the expense of own funds, has the right to receive social benefits for burial. Citizens who used services free of charge are not paid social benefits for funerals. Consequently, the Burial Law provides for both the provision of funeral services free of charge by a specialized service, and the burial at one’s own expense, with subsequent receipt of social benefits. In the latter case, relatives can receive funeral services (including burial) from any person providing such services. Otherwise, it would be necessary to admit that the relatives of the deceased do not have the right to choose the organization providing such services, i.e. the civil rights of the latter are limited.

Article 25 of the Burial Law establishes guarantees for the implementation of burial by organizing a funeral business as independent type activities consisting in the creation by local governments of specialized services that are obliged to provide a guaranteed list of burial services free of charge. At the same time, this norm does not provide that the subject composition of participants in the funeral services market is limited to the creation of specialized services, and that other legal entities deprived of the right to engage in this activity.

The concept of other persons is not defined by the Burial Law. In accordance with subsection 2 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, persons mean both individuals and legal entities. Funeral services, including burying the dead and making graves, can be provided by both private individuals (legal and physical) and specially created organizations - specialized services for funeral matters.

Article 6 of the Burial Law establishes that in the case of reasoned refusal any of the persons specified in Article 5 of the Law on Burial of persons from executing the will of the deceased, it can be performed by another person who has taken upon himself the responsibility to bury the deceased, or carried out by a specialized service for funeral matters.

As established by Article 18 of the Burial Law, public cemeteries are under the jurisdiction of local governments, which determine the procedure for the operation of cemeteries. The possibility of transferring public cemeteries to the jurisdiction of any economic entity, including those with the status of a specialized service, is not provided for by the Law on Burial. Lands of public cemeteries cannot be classified as lands for commercial use (on the terms of lease or economic management). Otherwise, this will negate state guarantees of free burial space for every citizen.

A systematic interpretation of the legislation allows us to conclude that the status of specialized services created for the purpose of providing a guaranteed list of services cannot serve as a basis for granting an enterprise the exclusive right to provide the entire range of funeral services, as well as transferring the powers of a local government body.

Part 3 of Article 15 of the Federal Law of July 26, 2006 No. 135-FZ “On the Protection of Competition” (hereinafter referred to as the Law on the Protection of Competition) prohibits the combination of the functions of local government bodies and the functions of business entities, as well as the vesting of business entities with the functions and rights of these bodies.

FAS Russia believes that in order to implement the functions assigned to local government bodies in the field of funeral business, local government bodies can create municipal budgetary institutions that will not carry out activities that generate income for them, i.e. will not be business entities within the meaning of paragraph 5 of Article 4 of the Law on Protection of Competition, which, on a free basis, will carry out, including the allocation of land plots for burials, inventory of burials and updating of burial books, registration of burials of the deceased in the registration book, monitoring compliance with the order burials, establishing operating hours at municipal cemeteries. At the same time, local governments will coordinate the activities of municipal budgetary institutions. This working mechanism will make it possible to transfer, in accordance with current legislation, land plots of municipal cemeteries to the jurisdiction of municipal budgetary institutions. In the absence of the possibility of creating municipal budgetary institutions, local government bodies must carry out functions in the field of funeral business independently.

According to the FAS Russia, it is more rational to delegate these functions to already existing institutions or structural divisions administration of a municipal entity (municipal institution of urban services, department of urban services, etc.), rather than the creation of a specialized unit with appropriate funding. As practice shows (for example, Krasnoyarsk region), there are no difficulties when creating plans for cemeteries and issuing permits in accordance with them to allocate a plot of land for burial. All other work (services) at the cemetery will be performed by business entities (burial services, installation of monuments, etc.) on a competitive basis based on citizens’ requests.

Work on the maintenance of municipal cemeteries in the territories of burial places must be carried out in accordance with Federal law dated July 21, 2005 No. 94-FZ “On placing orders for the supply of goods, performance of work, provision of services for state and municipal needs”, since maintaining the cemetery in proper sanitary condition is within the competence of local governments and is a municipal need. In connection with the above, local governments are required to place orders for the provision of services for the maintenance of burial sites on a competitive basis, while ensuring compliance with the requirements of antimonopoly legislation.

Local government bodies, in accordance with the Burial Law, have the right to accept legal act on the procedure for the operation of public cemeteries, in which the operating mode of the cemetery and the procedure for allocating land plot for burial.

On the issue of providing a guaranteed list of funeral services, local governments have the right to create specialized services for funeral matters. In the absence of opportunities to create appropriate services, according to the FAS Russia, local government bodies can grant business entities the status of specialized services, which, in order to ensure competition, should be done on a competitive basis. However, this does not mean that other organizations cannot provide a range of services within the guaranteed list with appropriate reimbursement from the budget.

FAS Russia believes that burial services for unclaimed and homeless people should also be provided on a competitive basis, since they are the subject of a separate business carried out for budget funds.
Specialized funeral services operate according to a guaranteed list of burial services. Activities related to burial on a commercial basis (for a fee), which constitutes more than 90% of the total volume of funeral services, must be carried out in conditions of equal competition with other economic entities, participants in this market.

Organizations that have entered into a municipal contract for the provision of services for the maintenance of cemeteries cannot be vested with control functions in relation to other business entities and must carry out activities exclusively within the framework of execution