ISLAMABAD: The federal government has announced to have launched a severance package of over 28 billion rupees for more than 11,000 employees of the Utility Stores Corporation (USC), further announcing to have shut down the USC services countrywide from Sunday, 31 August.

In this context, Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Tariq Fazal Chaudhary, along with the representatives of the USC unions, held a press conference to formally announce the closure of the USC. “Today, we announce formally that the operations of Utility Stores are being closed countrywide with effect from today,” he said on Sunday.

Announcing the USC package for the USC employees, the minister said, a grant of Rs 19.5 billion has been approved by the Finance Ministry in this regard.

In addition, the affected employees would also be paid under the head of terminal dues and widow dues, amounting to Rs 5.7 billion, whereas Rs 3 billion rupees would be paid as pending salaries of the last few months to the USC employees.

Overall, Rs 28.2 billion have been allocated by the government under the Severance Package for the USC employees, Chaudhary said.

Apart from that, Rs 2 billion have been allocated for small vendors who provided goods to the USC, the minister said.

The total number of working USC employees is 11,614, he added.

The severance package, the minister said, was launched following an agreement between the government and the unions of the USC. The unions, he said, support this package.

The government, according to the minister, did not wish to shut down the USC but had no other option. “Despite our best efforts, the losses incurred by the Utility Stores could not be minimised following which it was decided by the prime minister to close down the Utility stores— it was a cabinet decision,” Chaudhary said, adding that the Utility Stores were incurring a loss of Rs 600 million to the national kitty every month.—SARDAR SIKANDER SHAHEEN