More money for the richest monarchy

Prachatai has been excellent in recent years in reporting taxpayer funds being shoveled into supporting and promoting the monarchy. It has completed this task again for the 2026 budget, where it notes that the budgets provided are more opaque, with few explanations of exactly where 41,766,249,400 baht ($1.33 billion).

Prachatai reports that this total figure includes two kinds of funding:

first, direct spending that covers palace operations, such as security, travel, or the budget for the Royal Agencies; and second, indirect expenditures, or funds allocated to projects by other agencies in the name of honouring the monarchy or in support of the initiatives of royal family members.

The largest direct allocation goes the “Office of His Majesty’s Principal Private Secretary, the Bureau of the Royal Household and the Royal Security Command, received the largest direct spending budget, amounting to 9,272,098,000 baht.” As in other areas, this “budget did not show further details on how the money would be allocated among these agencies.”

Readers will recall that since 2017, under the military junta, total control of these agencies was handed to the king – a change he had demanded meaning that the funds and agencies are used “at His Majesty’s discretion.”

The second largest allocation is for royal security operations, amounting to 9,121,654,300 baht.

Another pile amounting to 1,062,357,700 baht is for “royal domestic and international travel, and to welcome foreign leaders.”

Then there is 1,525,000,000 baht for the Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning for “Royal Special Projects.” Previously this budget was for the “procurement of hardware, construction of supporting facilities, and the hiring of advisors … for special royal activities within the royal premises.

Indirect allocations are similarly huge, with “41 Royal Projects with no specific names given were given a total of 9,605,473,300 baht in funding.” In this, the ridiculous, sometimes hilarious vanity project “To Be Number One,” fronted by vainglorious Ubol Ratana, gets 241,078,500 baht.

The report has more details. At the same time, it seems that some expenditures are not listed. For example, the huge Royal Volunteer Program (Jit Arsa) might use some of the indirect allocations, but as a huge program that draws heavily on the military and public servants, we believe that there must be a very large sucking sound from within that program. Another example is the enormous expenditure for the dead queen’s memorialization and funeral. Again, this might draw on some funds mentioned above, the effort being expended must mean a very large drain on the taxpayer purse. And, as a third example, we wonder how much it costs to monitor, chase, arrest, prosecute and jail anyone deemed a “threat” to this crown.

Thailand’s taxpayers are filched of huge amounts to prop up a decaying body.