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Sri Lanka Standard Time (SLST) is the time zone for Sri Lanka. It is 5 hours and 30 minutes ahead of GMT/UTC (UTC+05:30).
The Sri Lanka Time reverted on 15 April 2006 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 UTC+05:30 to UTC+06:30.
In 1880, it was UTC+05:30. During World War II, in January 1942, when the Japanese were on the verge of invading Ceylon, the time was shifted to UTC+06:00. In September 1942, it was further advanced to UTC+06:30.
When the War ended in 1945, Ceylon reverted to UTC+05:30 to be the same as India. But in May 1996, it was changed to GMT+06:30 hrs for daylight saving during a severe power shortage in Sri Lanka. The clocks were put back by half an hour to UTC+06:00 in October 1996, though it was changed back again to GMT+05:30 in April 2006. By changing the time zone, the government hoped to bring the island in line with India. Sir Arthur C. Clarke, who was living in Sri Lanka at that time, protested against the switch, saying that it will make life inconvenient to everyone who has to relate to the rest of the world.
Currently Sri Lanka does not observe daylight saving time, though it was used during World War II.