No big rush is now seen at utility stores as the Utility Stores Corporation (USC) has lost its basic objective to provide items of daily use to the public, especially the poorer segments of the society, at prices comparatively lower than the market.

After the withdrawal of subsidies, prices of food items in utility stores are no different from the prices in open market. Ever since the increase in the support price of wheat (for the benefit of farmers) by the government, wheat flour has disappeared from all utility stores.

The manager of a utility store in Islamabad says his store has not received atta for the past two months, while several customers recall the days of Shaukat Aziz government when the stores used to meet their food requirements at prices much lower than the open market.

The store manager also hinted at declining business and feared downsizing in the number of stores if the current trend of withdrawing subsidies continues. Among the food items, people used to get wheat flour, pulses, vegetable ghee, oil, sugar etc., at subsidised rates from utility stores where long queues were seen till recently when all such commodities were available at subsidised rates.

The coming month of Ramazan will be real test time for the existence of utility stores. The way food inflation is rising, the month of blessings is expected to be very tough for people. It is the normal tendency that prices of eatables increase beyond the reach of consumers in Ramazan. Black-marketing and hoarding touch new peaks while the government machinery remains ineffective and fail to maintain the market rates within the reach of consumers.

The Utility Stores Corporation (USC) is implementing its plan to open 1,500 utility stores in the country. It has already opened 300 stores while opening of remaining 1,200 stores would be completed before the advent of Ramazan, USC Managing Director Brig (retired) Hafeez Ahmed told Dawn.

The government of Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani while withdrawing subsidies on food items commonly used by every household, wants to give relief to the people through the schemes like ‘Benazir Bachat Cards’. This gives indication that the government would have to restore the subsidies under a different brand name.

Food inflation has hit many countries across all the continents and in Asia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India were the hardest hit. Governments in these countries were giving subsidies to people to cope with food inflation; however, in the case of Pakistan, subsidies have started to be withdrawn.

The USC managing director said the corporation had decided to buy 150,000 metric tons of wheat every month to restore the supply of wheat flour from all utility stores.

It has already purchased 40,000 metric tons from Pasco while the remaining 110,000 metric tons of wheat will be procured from the stock being imported by the government. The sale of wheat flour from utility stores would commence as soon as stocks are in hand, he said.

About the price of wheat flour, Mr Ahmed said the price of a bag of 20kg atta would be around Rs380 in Punjab and Rs400 elsewhere, he said. The corporation is prepared to provide relief to the public if permitted by the fiscal space.

The Utility Stores Corporation (USC) has very little presence in the cantonment areas.

When his attention was drawn to this fact, the USC managing director said the Utility Super Market in the Saddar area was closed down after it suffered heavy loss. The USC also closed two other stores, one on the premises of General Post Office and the other near the railway station.

Not all people go to CSD outlets, and the presence of utility stores in cantonment areas would not only provide healthy competition but also help stabilise prices. In a bid to expand its business, CSD has recently acquired land in Westridge for opening a new super store.