The Verkhovna Rada has canceled the list of state-owned companies that are not subject to privatization, adopting bill No. 1054-1 as a whole with a further technical and legal revision.

According to a correspondent of the Interfax-Ukraine agency, 250 MPs voted for this bill at second reading with the quorum being 226 votes.

"For the second reading, we introduced safety switches that will not allow bankruptcy of state enterprises that had been artificially pumped up with debts all these years. We are introducing a moratorium on recovering property for debts and initiating bankruptcy cases for three years," deputy head of the parliamentary committee on economic development Roksolana Pidlas (the Servant of the People faction) said.

The committee took into account 13 of the 25 amendments to second reading.

According to the text of the draft law prepared for second reading, the parliament obliges the Cabinet of Ministers to develop and submit to parliament a list of strategic enterprises, in which the state cannot sell a controlling stake, within three months from the entry into force of the law.

In addition, the bill excludes the Ukrposhta national postal operator from Article 4 of the laws on privatization.

"This is only so that there is an opportunity to get a strategic investor for a minority stake," the expert said.