Federal Govt Decides To Shut Down 1,700 Loss-making Utility Stores

Abdullah Hussain (@Abdulla99267510) Published March 21, 2025 | 07:26 PM

Senate Standing Committee has been informed that utility stores are included in government's privatization list

ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-March 21^st, 2025) The Federal government on Friday decided to close 1,700 loss-making utility stores under its privatization plan.

The Senate Standing Committee meeting on Industries and Production, chaired by Senator Aon Abbas, was held, during which a detailed briefing was given on the future of the Utility Stores Corporation.

The committee was informed that the utility stores are included in the government's privatization list. However, the privatization process has been delayed due to the lack of an audit over the past two years.

The audit is now scheduled to be completed by August 2025.

It was revealed that there are currently over 3,200 utility stores nationwide, out of which 1,700 are operating at a loss and will be shut down.

After privatization, only 1,500 stores would remain operational, requiring staff, while the rest of the employees would be placed in the surplus pool.

According to the officials, the Utility Stores Corporation has 5,000 regular employees while nearly 6,000 work on contract and daily wages. The permanent employees would be transferred to the surplus pool whereas contract and daily-wage workers would not receive any severance package and would be laid off after privatization.

During the briefing, it was further disclosed that the monthly expenditure of the Utility Stores Corporation was Rs1.02 billion. However, with the closure of loss-making stores, this has been reduced to Rs520 million.

In just one month, losses have decreased by Rs220 million, bringing the total deficit down to Rs500 million.