Tuesday, 8th July 2008
Funerals could become cheaper as hearse service is liberalised
The current 11 operators licensed to own hearses and offer them for hire - and who have ruled the sector for about 40 years - are about to face competition as the market has been liberalised.
The Commerce Division will issue licences to eligible operators who apply, while the Transport Authority (ADT) will issue licences for new, imported hearses that satisfy the necessary criteria, the Transport Ministry said yesterday.
Second-hand hearses will not be licensed and vehicles manufactured over 20 years ago will not have their licence renewed.
The decision to liberalise the sector was approved by Cabinet that also decided to remove the registration tax exemption on new hearses imported as of today and introduce the 30 per cent tax currently applied to chauffer-driven imported vehicles.
The government will also remove fixed fares from the regulations governing the sector, allowing charges to be determined by market forces.
In effect, the liberalisation means that 14 requests made to the ADT for 17 hearses will be accepted and eligible applicants will be granted permits, the ministry said.
So far, the sector consists of 11 licensed hearse operators and 51 undertakers.
The ministry explained that the number of hearses was restricted as no new licences were issued.
The restriction was detrimental to consumers because it limited the choice among service suppliers and curbed competition.
Moreover, the fact that only 11 operators' licences were issued paved the way for the formation of cartels and the fixing of prices.
According to ADT archives, there were, in 1959, 11 registered horse-drawn hearse operators and, in 1970, those licences were changed to vehicle licences.
For the next 36 years, no permits were issued even though, in 1984, the police had asked the government to issue another 10 licences due to complaints of exorbitant fees. This recommendation was not upheld and, in 1997, the Transport Ministry turned down another request to increase the number of licences.
In 2002, the ADT turned down a request to issue licences for two hearses due to the restriction policy.
The owner of these hearses, however, filed a complaint with the Office of Fair Trade which ruled that the ADT was not competent to regulate the market and ordered the authority to issue the licences.
Two new vehicle licences were issued in 2006 and the government then lifted the registration tax on the importation of new hearses so that hearses were changed to new ones for the first time since 1970.
Apart from the restriction policy, regulations fixed the fare for the provision of a hearse and another car to a maximum €15.20, but no one stuck to this fare, the ministry claimed.
The Office of Fair Competition would evaluate the manner in which the market was operating after the elapse of some time, the ministry said.
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Comments
By the way, what happened to the liberalization of pharmacies - bandied about and hoped for a number of years back? Did the stiff resistance put up by the 'professionals' dampen the whole thing to abandonment?
- Nobody is going to shop around beforehand for himself because no one believes, or wants to believe, he is going to die.
- No one is going to shop around for a dying relative - for obvious reasons.
- In Malta, the deceased have to be buried within two days. That means that all decisions regarding the funeral have to be taken either on the day of the death itself or, at most the next day - in the midst of sometimes extreme grief. Nobody is going to question the prices charged, for fear or being seen as mean with the deceased.
This decision is simply a Charter for the Callous to fleece the grieving relatives of the dead.
Whoever took this decision does not have a shred of a social conscience.