Taxpayer drained

“A King’s Ransom: The Eye-Watering Cost of Charles III” is a recent Bloomberg report on royal wealth in the UK. It begins with this: “Brits should be told how much their royals’ extravagant lifestyles are costing them.” Of course, in Thailand, as in the UK, uncovering exactly how much taxpayer money is siphoned off by royals is exceptionally difficult to determine – and deliberately so.

The article claims:

Financial accounts show the sovereign grant that supports King Charles III and his family in carrying out their official duties increased by 53% in the last financial year. It now stands at £132 million ($174 million). That’s a big leap — more than quadruple the £31 million of the initial grant when it was introduced in 2012, despite promises by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government of the day that it would provide better value for money than the old civil list system

It adds:

The campaign group Republic, which seeks the abolition of the monarchy, estimates the true annual cost is closer to £510 million [22.6 billion baht], once security, travel and other expenses are factored in.

Back in 2021, it was calculated that the direct taxpayer cost in Thailand for the monarchy was at least 37.228 billion baht or 1.12% of all the national budget or more than $1 billion.