Filed under other expenditure

The Internal Security Operations Command asked for ฿5,737,390,300 for the fiscal year that begins on 1 October 2026, down from ฿6,843,974,300 the year before. The figures are the Budget Bureau’s own, in the budget documents that went to Parliament in June 2026.

Most of it is meant for one place. ฿4,355.2 million — 76 per cent — sits in a single plan: the strategy for resolving the problems of the southern border provinces.

And most of it sits in one category. The budget sorts every agency’s spending into five kinds: personnel, operations, investment, subsidies, and “other expenditure”. ISOC files ฿5,314.3 million of its request — 92.6 per cent — as other expenditure. Personnel, in the budget’s own sense, is ฿72.1 million.

What the lines say

The personnel plan, ฿766.3 million, carries ISOC’s own staff: ฿44.3 million in salaries, ฿27.3 million for government employees, ฿0.5 million in temporary wages and ฿8.7 million of operating costs. The rest of it — ฿685.5 million — is other expenditure, described as monthly special pay for officials working in the southern border provinces.

The southern-border plan, ฿4,355.2 million, has ฿49.8 million of operating costs, for the rental of 235 vehicles, and ฿4,305.5 million of other expenditure in nineteen headed items. The largest by far is headed “personnel and operations”: ฿2,341.0 million. After it come support for civilian networks for security work in the region, ฿324.6 million; public-sector efficiency and policy, ฿299.8 million; developing intelligence systems, ฿285.9 million; protecting life and property and ending violence, ฿156.2 million; and repairing security equipment, ฿60.0 million. Peaceful approaches to the conflict, public understanding and cultural diversity appear as smaller lines.

The document gives headings, not breakdowns. It does not say how much of “personnel and operations” is pay, how much is allowance and how much is anything else, or how many people it covers.

The Army’s account

In July 2026, in a public dispute over this request, the Royal Thai Army gave its own explanation, as Isra News reported. It said around 75 per cent of ISOC’s budget goes to the southern border mission; that nearly 70 per cent of that mission’s allocation covers allowances, per diems and special payments for about 49,000 integrated personnel from the military, the police, the administration and other agencies; and that because most people working for ISOC are seconded from other agencies, those payments are recorded as other expenditure.

The Budget Bureau’s figures bear out the first part: 76 per cent. The rest is the Army’s description of lines the document itself only names. It is an institutional account, not an audited breakdown, and this article reports it as that.

What the classification does and does not tell you

“Other expenditure” is a budget category, not a verdict. Nothing in the document suggests the spending is improper, and nothing here suggests it either.

What it affects is what a reader can see. When 92.6 per cent of an agency’s request is filed under one category and the document gives that category’s items only by title, a reader of the budget can see how much is meant for the southern border and cannot see what, line by line, it buys.

What this article does not say

It does not say how much Thailand has spent on the southern conflict since 2004, or what all security and development spending in the region adds up to. It says nothing about the conflict’s causes, its conduct or any party to it. It does not treat “personnel and operations” as a payroll, or 49,000 as a count of salaried posts. And it describes nothing as hidden.

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Common misconceptions

“The 49,000 figure is a payroll headcount.” No. It is the Army’s reported description of integrated personnel drawn from several agencies. The budget document gives no headcount.

“Seventy per cent of the budget is wages.” No. The document’s largest southern line is headed “personnel and operations” and is not broken down.

“Other expenditure means secret spending.” No. It is one of the budget’s five standard categories. The document names every item; it does not break the items down.

“A budget can establish why a conflict continues.” No. It can show what has been requested, under which headings.