Government’s Big Move! 1700 Utility Stores Closed
Islamabad: The federal government has taken the final decision to close 1700 loss-making utility stores under the privatization plan. This move has put a question mark on the future of thousands of employees.
A briefing was given on the future of the Utility Stores Corporation in the meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Industries and Production chaired by Senator Aon Abbas.
Officials said that the government has included the utility stores in the privatization list, however, the privatization process is delayed due to the non-completion of the two-year audit. The target has been set to complete the audit by August 2025.
It was revealed in the briefing that out of the 3200 utility stores across the country, 1700 are continuously running into losses, due to which they will be closed. After privatization, only 1,500 stores will be kept operational, and the remaining employees will be sent to the surplus pool.
According to officials, 5,000 employees of Utility Stores are regular, while 6,000 are working on contract and daily wages.
Permanent employees will be included in the surplus pool, while contract and daily wages employees will be dismissed without any kind of package.
The briefing further informed that with this decision, the monthly expenditure of Utility Stores Corporation will be reduced from Rs 1.2 billion to Rs 520 million.
