The Hospital Authority has said they will introduce a fee for public hospital mortuaries after a few days of body storage, a duration the Funeral Business Association on Thursday said should be extended to a month.

From January 1, using these facilities will cost HK$100 per day starting from the fourth day, with the rate doubling from day 18.

The cost will then further rise to HK$550 a day from day 34.

The authority said data in recent years showed that 10 percent of bodies remained unclaimed for more than a month, and that some of them had been stored for more than a year.

It added that it has already taken into consideration various factors, such as hospital operations and the market rate for comparable services.

However, the Funeral Business Association said these mortuaries should be free to use for the first month.

Its head Cheng Chi-kit told Commercial Radio on Thursday that it takes about 20 days for the public to arrange a funeral and cremation after obtaining the required documents.

"So if there are public holidays or weekends during the period, then it will take even longer," he said.

"If there are some long holidays such as Easter, or the upcoming Christmas and Lunar New Year, the period for collecting or processing documents alone can take over a week."

He stressed that the sector always encourages people to arrange funerals and cremations as soon as possible, since corpses undergo changes everyday.

But it depends on how quickly relevant government departments can issue the necessary documents, Cheng added.

He believes the authority has taken reference to the fees imposed by mortuaries at private hospitals, where prices accumulate after a certain period.