Sri Lanka Standard Time (SLST) is the time zone for Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka observes UTC+05:30 which is 5 hours and 30 minutes ahead of GMT/UTC (UTC+05:30).
Since 1880, the time zone in Ceylon (former name of Sri Lanka before 1972) has varied from UTC+05:30 to UTC+06:30. In 1880, during the British rule, Ceylon observed UTC+05:30 until World War II. In January 1942, the Standard Time shifted to UTC+06:00 due to Japanese attempt to invade Ceylon. When the WW II ended in 1945, British Ceylon reverted time zone to UTC+05:30.
In May 1996, Sri Lanka switched the time zone to UTC+06:30 for daylight saving. In October 1996, SLST was switched to UTC+06:00. However, time change not effectively observed in entire Sri Lanka, and Tamil Tiger controlled areas (most of North and East) observed the time zone of UTC+05:30. Again, on 15th of April 2006, the government switched the standard time to UTC+05:30.
Sri Lanka observes Sri Lanka Standard Time which is similar India Standard Time all year, and it does not currently observe daylight saving time. There is no Daylight Saving Time, though it previously observed during Second World War.
What is UTC+05:30?
UTC+05:30 is an identifier for a time zone from GMT/UTC. This time zone is observed in India and Sri Lanka. It is five and a half hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. In this time zone, UTC+05:30, approximately 1.4 billion people which makes it the second most populous time zone after UTC+08:00.
SLST is used throughout Sri Lanka and is the standard time for all activities, including government operations, transportation, and business. The time zone is also used for weather forecasting and is observed by Sri Lankan media outlets.