The House of Representatives on Wednesday (28 May) passed in three consecutive readings the new Crown Property bill, which renames the Crown Property Bureau as the “Privy Purse Bureau,” and to transfer the related offices in the Bureau of the Royal Household to the renamed Office.

The bill states that the objective of the name change is to maintain a connection with ancient tradition because the Privy Purse is the organization originally responsible for handling the King’s property before it was replaced by the Crown Property Bureau.

According to the consultation report, no public consultation was conducted because the bill “does not affect the public.” Only the Office of the Prime Minister was consulted.

The bill was proposed by the Cabinet, which requested that the House pass three readings in the same session by appointing the entire House as an ad-hoc committee. People’s Party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut objected to the process, saying that the bill should go through the normal legislative process because a bill relating to the monarchy should be considered thoroughly and parliament must be careful not to cause doubt among the people.

Natthaphong did not object to the bill itself, however. He said that the structural changes were already completed in previous amendments, and that there is no objection to the name change.

Royal property was previously separated under the 1936 Crown Property Act into three categories: the King’s private property, public property, and crown property. In 2017 and 2018, the Act was amended to combine the three categories into ‘crown property,’ to be administered at the King’s pleasure.

The Democracy Restoration Group (DRG), a group of pro-democracy activists, released a statement following the vote, saying that they oppose the bill because the Privy Purse Bureau is a name used during the absolute monarchy and does not reflect the fact that the people hold sovereign power. They also said that they objected because no public consultation was conducted, and because the bill is a result of the 2014 military coup.

DRG said in the statement that the monarch is a state institution as the head of state. The use of royal property is therefore tied to the public and national budget, and the monarchy’s spending should be transparent. The House of Representatives should be checking such spending, said the statement, not giving the monarchy more power.

On Thursday (29 May), the Senate also passed three consecutive readings of the bill. It is now awaiting royal assent.

The Privy Purse Bureau was originally founded by King Chulalongkorn, who reigned from 1868 – 1910, to handle his private property. Originally a department in the Ministry of Finance, it became a bureau under the control of the Prime Minister after the 1932 Siamese Revolution, which marked the change from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy.

In 1936, the Crown Property Act was enacted, aiming to separate crown property from the King’s private property. Following an amendment to the Act in 1948, the Privy Purse Bureau was replaced by the Crown Property Bureau.