The country is doing away with entry and exit permits for transporting corpses to streamline procedures and enhance administrative efficiency, a Frontier Health and Quarantine Law draft amendment said.
The draft was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature, for deliberation on Sunday.
The existing law requires consignors or agents to obtain an entry or exit permit from relevant authorities before they transport a corpse or human remains across the country's borders.
This requirement has been deleted in the draft. It now stipulates that "a consignor or an agent for the transportation of a corpse or human remains into or out of the country must declare the matter to a frontier health and quarantine office; transport thereof, in either direction across the border, shall not be allowed until sanitary inspection proves satisfactory".
Cao Kangtai, the director of the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council, told the legislative session that requirements of corpses varied from other items going into or out of the country.
"However, as long as consignors and agents provide certificates on the identity of the deceased, the death certificate and embalming information to the frontier health and quarantine authorities for verification, it is unnecessary for them to undergo administrative approval procedures," Cao said.
The move is part of a government reform of administrative procedures for examination and approval, and strives to more effectively administer public services and social order, Cao said.
The State Council, or the country's Cabinet, scrapped 1,806 items subject to examination and approval between October 2001 and April this year.
The State Council also decided to remove another 128 administrative requirements for examination and approval and amended 58 others to cut red tape in the administrative process.
The 31st session of the 10th NPC Standing Committee started on Sunday and will last till Saturday.
(Xinhua News Agency December 25, 2007)
