In Kawthaung Township’s Pulotontone Village in Tanintharyi Region the junta-appointed administration is demanding 500,000 MMK or more for funeral permits that previously cost no more than 300,000 MMK.

According to residents of Pulotontone Village, since January 2025 bereaved families are required to pay a hefty sum, typically around 500,000 MMK, to the village administration to be allowed to hold a funeral.

The village administration officer, U Tun Tun has not set a fixed fee for funeral permits as is normally done. Instead, he decides on an arbitrary amount, which is around 50,000 MMK, for each case. Last year the administration charged a set a fee of 300,000 MMK for a funeral permit.

Even before this year’s rise the Pulotontone Village administration charged much more for funeral permits than any other village in Tanintharyi Township.

In other Kawthaung Township villages, it is also a common practice to pay the village administration for a funeral permit, although the amount paid is at the discretion of those obtaining the permit and is typically only a few tens of thousands MMK.

A 50-year-old resident of Pulotontone Village said: “The village administration does not come to collect money when a funeral is held in a village home. Instead, the payment must be delivered to the village administrator’s house or the 100-house-group elders.”

Bereaved families have no option but to comply with such demands, fearing that if the payment is not made, the Pulotontone Village administration will swiftly take the body, cremate it, and stop them from making proper funeral arrangements. But, so far, this has not happened.

Poor families in Pulotontone Village who cannot afford the funeral permit fee have had to rely on donations which they then pass on to the village administration to cover the funeral permit fees.

Pulotontone is a large fishing village of 791 households, according to the 2014 census.