The Cabinet approved the criteria and guidelines for transferring the 2026 budget, as well as the calendar for transferring budget expenditures to cover emergency or urgent necessary situations.
On 2 Jun 2026 GMT+7, Ms. Ratchada Thanadirek, spokesperson of the Prime Minister's Office, announced that the Cabinet meeting resolved to approve the criteria and guidelines for transferring the annual budget expenditures for the fiscal year 2026, along with the calendar for budget transfers. This allows the transfer of budget expenditures from budget units where the funds are no longer necessary or where implementation can be postponed, to cover expenses related to emergency or urgent needs.
The spokesperson of the Prime Minister's Office added that the key criteria are as follows:
1. Regular expenses: All budget items that have not yet been disbursed and have no binding commitments as of 2 Jun 2026 GMT+7, especially expenses for seminars, training, public relations, official travel abroad, and related costs, or items that can be postponed without causing damage to government operations or are not feasible to implement.
2. Investment expenditures consist of:
(1) Single-year items for which bidding announcements, invitations, or contractor procurement cannot be completed by 2 Jun 2026 GMT+7.
(2) Multi-year committed items for which bidding announcements, invitations, or contractor procurement cannot be completed by 2 Jun 2026 GMT+7, and the responsible units consider them no longer necessary and can cancel or postpone implementation.
(3) Budget items that the budget-receiving units consider can be postponed without causing damage to government operations or cannot be disbursed in fiscal year 2026.
This excludes personnel expenses, budgets under the public debt management plan, expenses to repay treasury advances, expenditures for state welfare, employment-related expenses of budget units, local government budgets, self-implemented projects, items under negotiation for purchase or contracting outcomes, and remaining investment budgets still necessary to implement government policies or key agency missions. Also excluded are high-priority items where non-implementation would cause harm to government operations or impact the public.
The calendar for budget transfers is as follows:
By 5 Jun 2026 GMT+7, budget-receiving units must prepare transfer details and submit them through their overseeing ministers to the Budget Bureau. On 16 Jun 2026 GMT+7, the Budget Bureau will submit the details.
The Cabinet will review the transfer details, followed by the House of Representatives considering the first reading on 25 Jun 2026 GMT+7, the second and third readings on 2 Jul 2026 GMT+7, the Senate's consideration on 6 Jul 2026 GMT+7, and finally on 15 Jul 2026 GMT+7, the draft Budget Transfer Act will be submitted for royal assent.