The federal government has decided to shut down all nonprofitable Utility Stores in Pakistan.
The number of these stores is 1700 and thousands of people will lose their jobs after this.
Currently, there are 3200 Utility Stores in Pakistan and 1700 of them are running at a loss.
According to reports, regular employees will be added to the surplus pool, while contract and daily-wage workers will not receive any compensation and will be dismissed after the closure of these stores.
The shutting down will benefit the government monthly as the expenses of Utility Stores Corporation were Rs1.02 billion. However, shutting down loss-making stores has reduced this to Rs520 million.
Ramazan Relief Package and Utility Stores
Earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that his government would unveil the Ramazan Relief Package this year without Utility Stores’ role to prevent corruption and the distribution of low-quality commodities to the people.
“As the Holy Ramazan is about to start, I have asked the Ministry of National Food Security to bring about a Ramzan Package without Utility Stores to prevent corruption and the sale of low-quality material. I had asked many months ago that this cannot go on with the Utility Stores,” the prime minister said in his televised opening remarks at the meeting of the federal cabinet chaired by him.
In 2024, a total of 446 utility stores were shut down nationwide.
Most of the affected outlets were in rural areas, where utility stores were heavily reliant on government subsidies.
