China's central fund for reconstruction from last year's May 12 earthquake reached 74 billion yuan (10.88 billion U.S. dollars) and expenditure was 69.77 billion yuan last year, said Finance Minister Xie Xuren on Wednesday.

Xie revealed the figure in a report to the ninth session of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature.

He said 60 billion yuan of the fund was provided by the budget, 9 billion from tax on vehicle purchases, 1 billion from public welfare lottery funds and 4 billion from state-owned capital management budgets.

The 8-magnitude earthquake struck Wenchuan County of southwestern Sichuan Province on May 12, 2008, leaving about 87,000 people dead or missing and injuring more than 370,000.

In the quake-hit regions, urban and rural post-quake housing cost 38 billion yuan, public services 9.88 billion yuan, infrastructure construction 9.65 billion yuan and industry reconstruction 4.8 billion yuan.

The central budget arranged 130 billion yuan for the reconstruction work in 2009. The top legislature approved the central budget for 2009 at its annual full session in March.

March's annual parliamentary session also endorsed a massive economic stimulus plan, which included a 4-trillion yuan (585.5 billion U.S.dollars) two-year investment to prevent economic downturn.

The stimulus plan aimed at improving living standards includes reconstruction projects in regions affected by the May 12 earthquake.

Sichuan Vice Governor Wei Hong estimated post-quake reconstruction would cost about 1.7 trillion yuan.

(Xinhua News Agency June 24, 2009)