Budget Bureau, an official unit equivalent to department under the Prime Minister’s office, is a central unit responsible for budgeting and propose to the Prime Minister’s office for approval, prior to present to the parliament. Later, the budget expenditure is to be approved and declared as the Annual Budget Expenditure Act. The Budget Bureau need to manage the limited national resources for the optimized usage for people and country. The budget allocation as the annual budget expenditure is aimed for government agencies and state enterprises to spend and participated well with state activities, for the development of the country and all necessary business. Moreover, It has to be ensured that the spending on the budget is the most economically feasible, without any wasteful leakage or loss.
The office of the Budget Bureau was located in Pattana building, in the premise of the government house. Consequently, as the expanded of missions and personnel, the area was not enough served, the Budget Bureau has its office relocated to a new location at Soi Aree Samphan, Rama VI Road, Phayathai, Bangkok, on July 1986 till present.
As the Royal Treasury Department “Krom Phra Khlang Maha Sombat” had been reformed and raised up the structure to be ministry on 7 October 1890, in the reign of King RAMA V, there was a new important department set up which is the Comptroller General's Department. Later in 1926, in the reign of King RAMA VII, the Comptroller General's Department had been reorganized to suitable cope with more added missions, divided into 6 divisions. One of them is the Budget division, which responsible for inspecting the disbursement of utility expense, special money for appropriated fund disbursement, budget controlling, budget procedure controlling, budgeting and signature controlling. Then, after the revolution in 1932, the Budget division was restructured to be Budget branch under the Expense disbursement division, Comptroller General's Department. However, in the following year, the government had realized the importance of budget; the budget branch was raised back to the same level as the original budget division. At that time, the budget division has been given the annual budget for direct budgeting, but mostly, it was a collection of expenditures estimates from various ministries and departments. In addition, the division also supervises the disbursement of government agencies to comply with laws and regulations
Subsequently, the roles of Budget Division had been increased; there are many branches and staff more than ever before. Until the year 1956, the United States provided academic assistance along with recommendations for improving roles and status of this agency. By the year 1959, the budget division was restructured to be Budget section in the Comptroller General's Department, Ministry of Finance as in the past.
Until the revolution took place in October that year, the Finance and Budget Committee of the revolutionary council considered budget was a crucial tool of government to manage and develop the country, which should be upgraded to a higher level and should be separated from the revenue collection and disbursement. Therefore, the Government has set up Budget Bureau, a department equivalent under the Prime Minister's Office since February 14th, 1959 onwards.
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