Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dav­en­dranath Tan­coo has de­fend­ed the gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion to re­tain the old Coat of Arms dur­ing a tran­si­tion pe­ri­od, say­ing the move is dri­ven by prac­ti­cal­i­ty and cost con­sid­er­a­tions that will save the coun­try mil­lions of dol­lars.

Speak­ing on Tues­day, Tan­coo said a phased tran­si­tion is nec­es­sary, giv­en the scale of changes re­quired across the pub­lic ser­vice and abroad.

“There are com­mon-sense rea­sons for hav­ing a tran­si­tion pe­ri­od. There are mil­lions of dol­lars’ worth of sig­nage in every sin­gle gov­ern­ment of­fice in the coun­try and em­bassies abroad, mil­lions more in stock of let­ter­head, pass­es, stamps and seals,” he said.