ISLAMABAD: The government Tuesday announced Rs2 billion Ramazan Package for provision of kitchen items to the consumers at subsidized rates during the holy month.
In a statement, Chairman Utility Stores Corporation Board of Directors (BoD) Zulqarnain Ali Khan said the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the federal cabinet had approved Rs2 billion for provision of 19 essential kitchen items at subsidized rates during the holy month.
These quality items would be available to the consumers at all the USC outlets countrywide. The government has also asked the provincial food authorities to specify their quality standards, under which their food inspectors would check food standards at the government outlets.
In private sector, retail outlets market is of around $150 billion and 40 percent of it is based on imported items. He said if the USC grabbed 10 percent of this market, it would be around $15 billion.
Zulqarnain said it was unfortunate that despite the fact that Pakistan was an agrarian country, the prices of milk, meat and other items were far high than the world markets’. He said sugar would be available at Rs5 a kilogram, flour at Rs4 a kg, ghee Rs15/kg, oil Rs10/kg, dall channa Rs20/kg, Moong dall 15, and mash and masoor dalls at Rs10/kg each.
White gram price would sell as Rs25/kg less than the market price, baisen Rs20/kg, dates Rs30/kg, Basmati rice, Sella and broken rice Rs15 less than the market price. Squashes & Syrups (1500 ml) price would be Rs15 less than the market price and an 800ml bottle would be available at Rs10 less than the market price.
Besides, on black tea the government would provide Rs50/kg; milk Rs15/kg subsidy while spices would be available at Rs10 per cent less than the open market price. Under the changed slogan, the USC would be for everyone, not only for the poor.
The USC has also been in discussion with the Bait-ul-Mal to provide products to the poor people during the holy month. The Bait-ul-Mal wants to distribute 100,000 packages of food items among the poor in Balochistan province through the USC. It would be part of the Rs2 billion relief package.
Besides, overseas Pakistanis are also interested in providing such packages to the poor through the USC. Later, a senior official of the USC told The News that the new setup was rigorously working on a plan to cleanse the USC of corruption and corrupt people.
For this purpose, the board has decided to bring Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), an automation system that will reduce human intervention and ensure eradication of corrupt practices.
He said the new management was facing hurdles but they were confident of bringing the system in the retail business. It is worth mentioning that over the last decade, every management of the USC claimed bringing such an automation system but they either failed or were not serious about it.
It was the reason that hundreds of corruption and misappropriation cases emerged in the USC’s various zones, as the management was manual and no real time data was available. The official also said for the first time a senior official from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had been taken as member on the USC BoD.