July 30, 2002	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 19,1423

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ISLAMABAD July 29: The Utility Stores Corporation of Pakistan (USC) has been forced to retrench about 200 to 250 employees in an attempt to cut down its non-developmental expenditure.

Some 40 employees have already been sacked in the last few days, sources told Dawn on Monday.

The downsizing has been necessitated by the government’s order of closing down another 100 non-earning shops to bring the total number of shops to under 300 from 370. The decision to downsize the corporation was made when the present management took the charge and drastically cut down the number of stores to about 800 in the country.

Informed sources have said that a general perception is being developed in the USC that if the current pace of decline continues, the corporation may be forced to wind up its operation in the next one year.

They claim that the monthly sale returns of the USC stood at over Rs180 million per month when the management took over, but the income has come down to approximately Rs60 million to Rs70 million per month.

As a result, the USC has not only gone bankrupt being defaulter of national commercial banks to the tune of Rs600m, but also some of major distributing national and multi-national companies have refused to give supplies at credit any more.