BEIJING -- Sales of welfare lottery tickets in China this year hit 100.04 billion yuan ($15.78 billion) as of Sunday, a rise of 21.47 percent year on year, according to a bulletin released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs on Monday.

Welfare funds totaling more than 30.8 billion yuan were collected through the lottery sales, the bulletin said.

Under current policies, half of welfare funds are collected by the central government, with 60 percent used as social insurance, 30 percent as special funds and the rest going to the MCA and the General Administration of Sport. The other half of the funds go to local governments.

According to the bulletin, welfare funds as part of the central finance in the past two decades have been spent in national social insurance compensation, the construction of activity venues for students, educational support, care for disabled people, medical treatment for serious illnesses, the 2008 Beijing Olympics, poverty relief efforts and cultural and legal aid, among other social welfare and charity fields.

According to the ministry, China's welfare lottery sales have amounted to more than 736.7 billion yuan since it was first launched in July 1987. Some 237.4 billion yuan of welfare funds were collected through the sales.