The government’s privatization list includes utility stores, according to the Senate Standing Committee.

Under its privatization plan, the federal government made the decision on Friday to close 1,700 utility stores that were making a loss. During the meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Industries and Production, which was presided over by Senator Aon Abbas, a comprehensive update on the Utility Stores Corporation’s future was presented. The utility stores are on the government’s list of things to privatize, according to information provided to the committee. However, the privatization process has been delayed due to the lack of an audit over the past two years.

The audit should now be finished 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.

The officials claim that the Utility Stores Corporation has 5,000 full-time employees and nearly 6,000 contract workers earning daily wages. After privatization, contract and daily-wage workers would be laid off without receiving a severance package, while permanent employees would be moved to the surplus pool. 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.

The total deficit has decreased to Rs500 million as a result of losses decreasing by Rs220 million in just one month.