MOSCOW, April 2 - RAPSI. The Federal Antimonopoly Service plans to amend the law on funerals later this month, Timofey Nizhegorodtsev, the head of the service's Social Sphere and Trade Control Department, said on Monday. The law includes a provision allowing for private cemeteries, he added.

Land plots with a lease term of 49 years will be allocated for private cemeteries. If a firm goes bankrupt, then the cemetery will be handed over to the local authorities, he said.

Nizhegorodtsev stressed that new graves often appear over old graves despite the existing ban.

For a bribe, you can get buried in any cemetery, he said.

The draft law specifies that reusing graves is permitted if relatives or other individuals do not take care of a grave and if their consent was given no less than 25 years after the burial.

Nizhegorodtsev said the primary problem with funerals is the high cost of burials, which is even higher than in the EU at times. Meanwhile, the state of cemeteries leaves much to be desired, he added. This is due to half-legal private companies to which dishonest officials delegate their powers, he said.