Deputy Vladimir Resin spoke in favor of a state monopoly in the field of funeral services

State Duma deputy (United Russia) Vladimir Resin said that a state monopoly should be introduced in the funeral services market so that Russians do not encounter scammers when burying loved ones. According to the deputy, funeral services should be included in social security.

“Perhaps we need to withdraw funeral services from the market altogether. I believe that the state and the church should deal with burial issues; this should be part of social security according to a certain standard, and in addition it is possible to pay for some special wishes of relatives,” the deputy said in a conversation with Interfax.

In addition, the deputy proposed to tighten the punishment for those who sell information about the deceased to funeral agencies, so that there are fewer cases of fraud. Vladimir Resin also proposed to “fully digitize” the sphere of funeral services: to carry out registration and payment through “State Services”, and also to create a unified State Register of burials.

According to Rosstat, the revenue of funeral companies in 2022 increased by 5% year-on-year, to 86 billion rubles. The volume of sales of funeral services in the Moscow region increased significantly – by 16% year-on-year, to 7.1 billion rubles, in the Leningrad region – by 11%, to 994 million rubles, in St. Petersburg – by 8%, to 8. 1 billion rub. In Moscow, the revenue of funeral companies fell by 20%, to 8.4 billion rubles.

Anastasia Larina