The Cost of the Thai Monarchy

The COST of the THAI MONARCHY

CHAPTER ONE
Cost of revamping the royal grounds

Investigated and compiled by Junya Yimprasert.

ACT4DEM focuses on the huge inequality between allocations for the people and allocations for the Palace in Thailand’s National Budget. For some years we have been looking into how national budget revenue is spent on upholding, worshiping, protecting and promoting the institution of the monarchy above all else in Thailand.

In Chapter One, using basic data from the Budget Bureau we will look at the budget of the

“โครงการส(บส*น,จกรรม/เศษหลวง” / ‘Special Royal Activities Support Project’, which is used solely for the design, construction and maintenance of the Royal Special Activities on the Royal Grounds / Royal Residential Precinct.

In 2020 we investigated the budget allocations that are both specifically designated to supporting the Palace or vaguely named to do the same, such as: the Royal Project Foundation; Monkey Cheek (flood prevention) Project; the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy Project and the Honouring and Protecting the Monarchy Project. These budget allocations we visit part by part.

We start by visiting the ‘Special Royal Activities Support Project’ which, handed down by the Interior Ministry, was developed from the plan to ‘Maintain Domestic Order’ in 2009. It comes now under the ‘Strategic Plan for Strengthening the National Main Institution’. The Special Royal Activities Support Project has the stated purpose to “support the design, renovation, construction and maintenance of the royal grounds.” According to the Interior Ministry’s 2020 budget, the final total cost of revamping the royal grounds from 2010 to 2024 could top one billion USD / 821 million Euro.

The original text published in Thai on 17 June 2020: https://act4dem.net/? p=1764&fbclid=IwAR1cYK4iZn6nyzO8NzEzJGvy2SzIVRz39Apcw4zhjABnFkz1kk-IxcckJow

Original translation to English by Paul Parone with editing by Ann Norman. This revised version 25 January 2021.