USC asked to expand network to rural areas

Utility stores striving to provide essential commodities at lower prices

ISLAMABAD:

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Industries and Production Tasneem Ahmed Qureshi has asked Utility Stores Corporation (USC) to expand its services to rural areas as a majority of Pakistan’s population resides in the countryside.

Speaking at a briefing on the performance and initiatives of USC on Friday, the special assistant emphasised that the government was committed to providing maximum relief to the people.

USC Managing Director Muhammad Ali Ammer spoke about the prime minister’s special relief package and overall operations of USC. He said that the utility stores were working hard to provide branded and unbranded essential commodities to consumers at comparatively lower prices.

“Prices of these items are still lower in utility stores than those in the open market,” he said. The meeting was briefed on the progress made on the provision of subsidy by the utility stores, targeted subsidy to the poor, expansion of USC network and provision of low-priced flour in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The MD said that USC had put into operation 200 mobile stores in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to facilitate consumers at their doorsteps.

Hundred mobile stores were functioning in the Abbottabad zone and another 100 in the Peshawar zone, facilitating the people who could buy goods in their localities in addition to receiving subsidy on the essential food items, he added.

He pointed out that USC had become profitable since financial year 2020-21 as the consumers were reposing confidence in the quality of food items being sold by those outlets.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2022.

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