Sri Lanka Time

Sri Lanka Time (SLT) is the time zone for Sri Lanka. It is 5 hours and 30 minutes ahead of GMT/UTC ().

The Sri Lanka Time reverted on 2006 April 15th 00:00 to match Indian Standard Time calculated from the Allahabad observatory in India 82.5 ° longitude East of Greenwich, the reference point for GMT.

The entire country shares the same time. Since 1880, Ceylon or Sri Lanka Time has varied between GMT+05:30to GMT+06:30 h.

In 1880, it was GMT+05:30 hrs. During World War II, in 1942 January, when the Japanese were on the verge of invading Ceylon, thetime was shifted to GMT+06:00 h. In September 1942, it was further advanced to GMT+06:30 hrs.When the War ended in 1945, Ceylon reverted back to GMT+05:30 hto be the same as India.

In May 1996, it was changed to GMT+06:30 hrs for daylight saving during asevere power shortage in Sri Lanka. The clocks were put back by half an hour to GMT+06:00 hin October 1996. The rebel LTTE used IST right through the changes since 1996.

Currently Sri Lanka does not observe daylight saving time, though it was used during the World War II (1942-1945).