Privatisation of USC: NA body decides to take up issue at appropriate forum
ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Industries and Production, Tuesday, decided to take up the issue at appropriate forum to stop the privatisation of Utility Stores Corporation in order to protect the jobs of 16,000 employees.
The Standing Committee on Industries and Production met here under the chairmanship of Syed Hafeezuddin strongly condemned that government for planning to close Utility Stores’ outlets countrywide by the end of July 2025 despite the fact that Federal Minister for Industries and Production had assured on the floor of the House that only those Utility Stores’ outlets would be closed which were accumulating losses.
According to the USC restructuring plan shared by the Managing Director Utility Stores Faisal Nisar Chaudhry last month in the Senate Standing Committee on Industries and Production, the closure of 1,925 loss-making Utility Stores outlets countrywide has resulted in saving of Rs1.7 billion.
The government has shut down 1,925 loss-making Utility Stores outlets countrywide while sacking 4,060 employees out of a total of 11,614. According to officials, in case, the government failed to privatise the USC annually Rs7 billion will be required to pay the salaries of the employees. At present, the privatisation process had been stopped because of a lack of its audit for two years.
“The privatisation will take place after the audit is complete,” the officials said, adding that 5,000 permanent employees would be sent to the surplus pool, while 2,554 employees still on contracts and on daily wage basis would be laid off.
The USC was on the government’s privatisation list. “The target is to complete the two-year audit in August 2025” after which the privatisation would be carried out, the official stated and added that an initial estimate of the USC properties had been made.
There were 3,742 Utility Stores outlets across the country, out of which, the government has shut down 1,925 loss-making stores. After the privatisation, only 1,500 stores would require staff. He also said that the USC’s monthly losses had been reduced to Rs220 million. The restructuring/rightsizing plan aimed at the eventual privatisation of the USC was formally approved by the USC Board of Directors during its 185th meeting held on 27th December 2024.
The USC is being restructured under the restructuring plan according to which the loss-making stores of the corporation are going to be closed and surplus staff thereafter is being laid off. As part of the ongoing restructuring plan of USC, 1,925 stores have been closed and around 4,060 employees (1,823 contractual and 2,237 daily wages) have been laid off.
It was also disclosed that the USC will not have sufficient funds to pay salaries to its 5,000 employees beyond next month, due to the closure of a significant number of its outlets. The USC officials informed the committee that the secretary had forwarded recommendations at the highest level, requesting that Rs7 billion funds be allocated for USC in the upcoming budget.
The USC officials said that the stores were running on government subsidies and now the government has decided to even provide Ramadan relief package through Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) to needy people.
According to officials the USC’s outstanding payment stand at Rs25 billion. The MD USC further stated that the management has decided to offer golden handshake scheme to 25 percent of the USC employees, otherwise, Rs2.7 billion annually will be spent on the salaries of these employees.
The committee expressed grave concern over the absence of automobile four-wheeler certification policy in the country and improper check over the manufacturing industries which had been causing massive losses of human lives in shape of accidents. The committee recommended that Ministry of Industries and Production may come up with the proposals in consultation with all the stakeholders by following the international practices instead of throwing responsibility on each other in order to prevent further accidental loss of lives in future and report back to the committee in its next meeting.
The committee expressed displeasure over the severe discrimination of K-electric for charging Rs40 tariff on consumers despite the fact that Rs28 tariff was being charged in the rest of the country. The committee directed that KE may take stringent measure to lessen the financial burden on its consumers by reducing electricity rates in order to make it identical to what is around the country.
Earlier, Additional Secretary Ministry of Industries and Production and representatives of other departments about efforts made by them to enhance the performance of their departments and problems faced by them in this regard.
The MNA Shahid Usman, Sajid Mehdi, Kiran Imran Dar, Syed Murtaza Mehmud, Dr Mahesh Kumar Malani, Abdul Hakeem Baloch, Dr Mahreen Razzaq Bhutto, Naz Baloch, Muhammad Iqbal Khan, Muhammad Mobeen Arif, Muhammad Saad Ullah, Rana Atif, Muhammad Arshad Sahi, Syed Raza Ali Gillani besides the Additional Secretary Industries and Production, Member FBR, MD USC and representative of K-Electric along with other senior officers of the ministry and its attached departments attended the meeting.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025