Photo taken with a mobile phone shows electric vehicles at a public DC charging service area in Shijingshan District of Beijing, capital of China, on July 15, 2019. (Xinhua/Ding Hongfa)

China has strengthened the construction of new energy vehicle (NEV) charging facilities in tandem with the country's policy incentives to bolster the automobile market, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said Thursday.

By the end of last year, more than 1.2 million charging poles have been built across the country, and the number of NEVs has reached 3.8 million, MOF official Sun Guangqi told a press conference.

The central government has allocated a total of 4.5 billion yuan (about 638 million U.S. dollars) to boost the construction of charging infrastructure, according to Sun.

The ministry will work with related departments to optimize subsidy and reward policies on charging infrastructure and accelerate the construction process to create a good environment for NEV consumption.

An earlier State Council executive meeting decided to extend subsidies and tax exemptions for NEV purchases by another two years, which were set to expire at the end of this year.

Value-added tax on the sale of old vehicles by second-hand dealers will be cut to 0.5 percent of the sales volume from May 1 to the end of 2023, the meeting decided.