The history of the Ministry of Finance begins in February 1829, when the Government of El Salvador takes office, Mr. José María Cornejo, who assigns Mr. Manuel Barberena as Finance and Warden, replaced during the same period by Mr. Joaquín Durán and Mr. Aguilar Later, Don Joaquín de San Martín took office in February 1833, and appointed Juan José Córdova as Secretary of Finance and War, who served until January 23, 1834. In that context, Barberena is considered and to Cordova as the precursors in that portfolio.

In May 1838, the deputy chief executive, Don Timoteo Menéndez, named the illustrious patricio Don Antonio José Cañas as General Minister, who definitively organized the Public Administration of El Salvador into four sections: Treasury, War, Relations and Governance. Don Antonio José Cañas, has always been considered the first Minister of each of the four oldest portfolios of the government cabinet of El Salvador.

Subsequently the Ministry of Economy is integrated with that of the Treasury, but on March 1, 1950, the Ministry of Finance is functioning independently. In short, since 1829 the Ministry of Finance is organized, controlling finances and balancing public spending, which has brought as a consequence the social and economic improvement of the country.

The General Directorate of the Budget was created in 1939 by Legislative Decree No. 45, published in the Official Gazette No. 98 of May 9, 1939, with the purpose that an executive (Director General) be devoted permanently to studies necessary to achieve the preparation and execution of realistic and balanced budgets thus assisting the President of the Republic and the Minister of Finance in the delicate work of the management of the Public Treasury, from that date begins its functions, framing its performance in the precepts legal provisions contained in the Organic Law of Budgets decreed on May 14, 1938 and that was repealed by the one that took effect on December 29, 1945, which in turn was replaced by that in force from the 1st. January 1955

Until the year 1952, the budget was drawn up under the traditional system in which expenditures were projected by specific items of expenditure. In 1964, the Program Budget System was introduced into the country as a strategic instrument through which the state's objectives in terms of economic and fiscal policy could be specified.

In the context of the System of Integrated Financial Administration System as a component of the modernization of the budget subsystem with the adoption of the Budget by Management Areas approach, whose implementation in 1996 implies for the budget office an organizational restructuring under the budget cycle concept , which includes the formulation, execution, monitoring and evaluation as an integrated process.

Currently the General Directorate of Budget is integrated as follows: Directorate, Subdirectorate, Technical Support Unit, Computing Unit, Economic Development Division and Public Enterprises, Administrative Conduction Division, Social Development Division, Division of Integration and Global Analysis of the Budget, Administrative Division, Values ​​Unit and the Communications and Public Relations Unit.