Next Thursday (July 10) will mark the end of the Utility Stores Corporation of Pakistan after over five decades of operations. The voluntary separation scheme (VSS) package approved by the prime minister will be applicable to all the employees affected by the closure, with the number estimated to be around 3800. While Pakistanis have heard a lot of talk about loss-making state entities being sold off or shut down, USC appears to be the first major such organisation to suffer this fate. One’s first thoughts are about how the people who relied on the subsidised essential goods, especially food, offered by USC’s 6000 stores nationwide and the organisation's employees are now faring. Is there anywhere else left for lower-income families and individuals to go to obtain relatively cheaper food? What will become of the thousands who are now jobless? How long will the VSS package sustain them? The answers to these questions ought to have been worked out before the stores were actually shut down, but things seem to be up in the air as far as the long-term fate of those affected is concerned.
A trip to the market would make one think that USC is exactly the kind of organisation that would enhance public welfare right now. As of June, many, if not most, perishable items were being sold at rates 50 to 100 per cent higher than official rates, with only substandard items being sold at official rates. This is the status quo in the country. Food, a necessity, remains a luxury for far too many Pakistanis, especially when it comes to items like meat, milk and sugar. The World Food Programme (WFP) claims that 82 per cent of the country’s population cannot afforCall for sanityd a healthy diet, with Pakistan ranking 109th out of 127 countries in the 2024 Global Hunger Index. With a large organisation directly dealing with the country’s hunger problem now gone, what will fill the gap? All this ‘IMF-inspired’ austerity, efficiency and privatisation are supposed to help by boosting growth and investment, theoretically making food more affordable. That is yet to materialise. And this is arguably the biggest problem with the country’s current socioeconomic direction. Ordinary people and state employees are being asked to take a big hit on behalf without seeing any concrete benefits. Saving the nation from insolvency, sadly, does not count.
The level of unfairness is only compounded by the fact that private businesses and tycoons still seem to have ready access to state largesse. Many of them are still outside the tax net or not paying their fair share even when they are in it. The state also routinely mismanages key commodities and leaves the people to pick up the pieces. The recent spike in sugar prices, reportedly fuelled by allowing 750,000 tonnes in exports from June 2024 to January 2025, is just the latest example. Shutting down an organisation dedicated to providing subsidised food after causing an avoidable increase in sugar prices will not do the government’s credibility among the people any favours. If the government wants to do away with public airlines, food companies and steel mills, it has to prove that the market alternatives to these entities are actually better alternatives.
