Central government spending on transfer payments given to resource-exhausted cities will amount to 16.8 billion yuan (2.72 billion U.S. dollars) in 2013, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said Wednesday.

The amount marks a year-on-year rise of 5 percent, said the ministry.

Heilongjiang, Liaoning, and Jilin provinces are the top three beneficiaries, with 2.04 billion yuan going to Heilongjiang, 1.64 billion yuan to Liaoning and 1.53 billion yuan to Jilin.

The arrangement depends mainly on the conditions of resource exhaustion, the local non-agricultural population, a province's fiscal power and a city's financial situation, said an official from the MOF's budget division.

The money will flow to local ecological management programs, municipal infrastructure construction and social security sectors, the anonymous official said.

The transfer payment was initiated in 2007 by the central government to advance city transformations nationwide. A total of 69 cities have been brought into its scope since then.

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