Sri Lankan Standard Time (SLST) (
Sinhala: ශ්රී ලංකාවේ සම්මත වේලාව, romanized: Shri Lankavay Sammatha Velava,
Tamil: இலங்கை நியம நேரம், romanized: Ilaṅkai niyama nēram) is the time zone for
Sri Lanka. It is 5 hours and 30 minutes ahead of
GMT/
UTC (
UTC+05:30) as observed since 15 April 2006.[1]
On 15 April 2006, Sri Lanka Time reverted to match
Indian Standard Time calculated from the
Allahabad Observatory in India 82.5° longitude East of
Greenwich, the reference point for GMT. This time zone applies to the entirety of Sri Lanka.
Since 1880, the time zone in Sri Lanka (or formerly, Ceylon) has varied from
UTC+05:30 to
UTC+06:30.
When the war ended in 1945, Ceylon reverted to
UTC+05:30 to be in the same time zone as India. However, in May 1996, Sri Lanka switched to
UTC+06:30for daylight saving during a severe power shortage[citation needed] in Sri Lanka.
On April 15. 2006, the government changed the official time to
UTC+05:30. By doing so, Sri Lanka aimed to align its time zone with that of India. English writer Sir
Arthur C. Clarke, who was then staying in Sri Lanka, protested against the switch, arguing that it would make life inconvenient to everyone who has to relate to the rest of the world.[2][3]