Grim profit reapers are cheating the living

A Taipei-based funeral service company pulls in an estimated NT$4 million a month by monopolizing the practice of hanging strips of cloth elegies at parlors during funerals, a Taipei City councilor alleged yesterday.

DPP City Councilor Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) said in a written statement yesterday that the service performed by Taipei's two municipal funeral parlors should instead be handled by a private company hired by the bereaved.

Tuan said his investigations have revealed that the Hungli (宏利) Funeral Service Co charges between NT$500 and NT$2,000 to hang cloth elegies.

"They not only tell the bereaved that they are professionals commissioned by the city government or [funeral] union to do the job, but they also intimidate and even beat up undertakers who refuse to let them take over," he alleged in the statement.

Tuan is currently on an overseas trip and is expected to return by the end of the month.

The hanging of cloth elegies used to be performed by the city's Funeral Management Section, which charged around NT$1,000 for the service.

The practice, along with others, was halted earlier this year after Tuan fiercely criticized the city's two funeral parlors for reaping enormous benefits from the service.

But after the city's funeral management system stopped the service, Hungli stepped in to profit from the simple but lucrative task, Tuan said.

The Taipei No. 1 Funeral Parlor has nine rooms; the No. 2 Funeral Parlor has 13. Because each room has at least three funerals a day, roughly 66 services are performed daily.

Tuan estimates that Hungli charges between NT$500 and NT$2,000 per service, meaning its monthly revenue could be as high as NT$4 million per month.

In January, Tuan disclosed details regarding lingering problems at the city's No. 2 Funeral Parlor -- including overcharging for services, charging for services that were not performed and allowing a private funeral service company to illegally occupy a space at the parlor to build an incinerator for burning paper money for the dead.

One undertaker, who spoke under condition of anonymity, said the problem has persisted for as long as it has because of the funeral industry's connection to organized crime.

"Since the company has close connections with the city government and gangsters, nobody has ever dared to come forward to have their voices heard," he said, adding that he had been "invited" by the company to invest NT$100,000 to be one of its partners or else face "subsequent consequences."

"They're simply a bunch of hooligans," he said.

The undertaker was later called in by the city's investigation office for questioning about whether he was involved in the scam, but he declined the invitation.

Chen Jung-hung (陳榮鴻), section chief of the city's Funeral Management Section, under the Bureau of Social Affairs (社會局), agreed with the undertaker's assessment.

But Chen denied the undertaker's accusation that the city government had connections with the company.

"I'm afraid there's nothing we can do about the situation since the company is legally registered and the service it provides is legal commercial behavior between the company and the consumer," Chen said.