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ISLAMABAD: The Utility Stores Corporation of Pakistan (USC) recorded an annual turnover of around Rs100 billion during 2020.
On achieving this benchmark, Managing Director Umer Lodhi said that USC was now an almost debt-free and self-sustained corporation. He further said that USC now intended to carry out restructuring to provide a customer-centric approach and was expected to acquire another milestone with a turnover of Rs150 billion till fiscal year 2021.
According to a statement, from a loss-making entity to one of the leading contributors to the national exchequer, USC has ensured food security through uninterrupted supplies of staple food items during the year.
The corporation USC contributed Rs. 8.564 billion in national exchequer during the fiscal year 2019-20 as compared to fiscal year 2018-19 in which USC paid Rs. 1.476 billion tax. The USC served Rs45.77 million households during the year through its largest retail network of 4,881 stores in rural as well as urban areas.
USC has been providing financial relief to people through Prime Minister’s Relief Package since January 2020, the statement said, adding the prices of subsidized food items (wheat flour, rice, sugar, pulses, and ghee) had remained the same throughout the year.
The USC will establish Information Technology (IT) infrastructure during the next fiscal year as the data center was already deployed in its head office. The data center has the capacity to meet future IT infrastructure requirements and synchronize warehouses and retail outlets.
Despite the coronavirus outbreak, retail outlets remained open for the public to maintain continued supplies of food items at prices lower than the open market. USC also launched around 100 Mobile Utility Stores during the pandemic to ensure delivery of grocery items at people’s doorstep in far-flung areas.
Moreover, the initiative helped increasing access of people to necessary items in remote areas across the country, especially in those areas where Smart Lockdown had been imposed. USC is the first in Pakistan to introduce shopping bags for the green environment as per Pakistan Environment Protection Agency rules.
During the year, 64 products were launched by USC under own brand including vermicelli, spices, mix spices, black tea, toiletries, and detergents, to name a few, the statement concluded.
