The budget year or fiscal year in Thailand begins in October and ends in the
September of the following calendar year:2 for example, fiscal year 2009 begins on
October 1, 2008 and ends on September 30, 2009. However, the budget formulation
process starts about 10 or 11 months before the actual beginning of the fiscal year
(Pallop, 2004: 115) because the budget must be prepared in advance. This budget
formulation process recurs every year and consists of five steps (Worabut, 2004:
86-87), as shown in Figure 1: budget planning, budget preparation, budget adoption,
budget execution, and budget evaluation.