BANGKOK: Thai junta leader General Prayuth Chan-ocha, stressing that the military had a "limited time" in power before a return to civilian rule, submitted a draft fiscal 2015 budget on Monday, with defence and education receiving hefty increases.
The military seized power in May after months of street demonstrations which led to the ouster of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
The Ministry of Education was allocated 498.16 billion baht ($15.66 billion), a 3.2 percent increase from last year's budget and 19.5 percent of the total budget allocations.
Prayuth has called for education reforms as part of his plans to reshape the country and restore political stability.
Defence spending, which typically increases in Thailand after a coup, grew 5 percent from last year's allocation to 193.07 billion baht ($6.07 billion).
"If we don't increase the budget and purchase new weapons, then nobody will fear us," Prayuth told reporters.
The 2.58 trillion baht ($81.08 billion) draft budget, up around 2 percent from 2014, was submitted to the military-dominated National Legislative Assembly and will be considered by ad-hoc committees and adopted in the coming weeks.
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