The Ukrainian government on December 21, 2018 approved the national budget spending report for 2019, where revenue from privatization are planned for earlier terms, Ukrainian Finance Minister Oksana Markarova has said.

"I will say more: the Finance Ministry expects that in the first quarter we will finally see the results of privatization," she said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

According to her, this year, instead of the planned UAH 21.3 billion from privatization, the national budget received only revenues from privatization of small companies in the amount of UAH 202.9 million. As a result, on December 18, the government was forced to replace this type of budget financing with borrowings, and the Finance Ministry had to raise rates on government bonds.

"We want to see privatization proceeds as early as possible, as now there is a well-established bad practice: we receive assurances all the year before November that it is about to take place, and in November it is too late from the point of view of normal debt management to borrow such a sum. Of course, this is reflected in the price (borrowing)," Markarkova said.

"Therefore, next year we will clearly demand the implementation of the budget revenue plan for privatization," she said.

She recalled that in 2018, the Cabinet of Ministers approved a list of large facilities, for the privatization of which advisers were selected. "Unfortunately, now some advisers are suing each other... I hope we will soon launch the privatization of large companies, including Centrenergo," the minister said.

The national budget for 2019 provides UAH 17 billion of revenue from privatization.