Sri Lanka time now, live flip clock
Sri Lanka keeps one time zone for the whole island, Sri Lanka Standard Time, SLST, UTC+5:30. It is the same time as India. Its clocks do not change. The clock above shows it live, with seconds.
Time zone in Sri Lanka
Colombo, Kandy, Galle and Jaffna all keep the same zone, fixed by regulation.
- SLST, UTC+5:30
- Not observed
- Colombo, Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia, Maharagama, Jaffna
How many hours ahead or behind Sri Lanka
On 7 October 2026, London is 4 hours 30 minutes behind Sri Lanka.
| City | Difference from Sri Lanka |
|---|---|
| London | 4 hours 30 minutes behind |
| Toronto | 9 hours 30 minutes behind |
| New York | 9 hours 30 minutes behind |
| Dubai | 1 hour 30 minutes behind |
| Riyadh | 2 hours 30 minutes behind |
| Qatar | 2 hours 30 minutes behind |
| Singapore | 2 hours 30 minutes ahead |
| Melbourne | 5 hours 30 minutes ahead |
| Your time zone | Detected after this page loads |
Convert a time between any two placesDaylight saving dates around the world
How Sri Lanka keeps its time
- The official time
- SLST
- A government regulation fixes Sri Lanka Standard Time at one gap to Coordinated Universal Time. There is no seasonal change. The regulation also makes it the time meant in any contract. The Time and Frequency Laboratory of the Measurement Units, Standards and Services Department keeps it and sends it out.
- Ten years ahead of India
- 10
- During the country's worst power crisis, Sri Lanka moved its clocks forward by an hour. Dark mornings brought an outcry. The clocks went back half an hour the same year. The island then ran half an hour ahead of India for about a decade. After that, it returned to India's time.
- Two clocks on one island
- 30 min
- The Tamil Tigers never accepted the change. In the areas they controlled, they kept the old time, the same as India's. Throughout that decade, clocks in those areas ran half an hour behind Colombo.
- Back on India's time
- 0
- Parents had been complaining that children left for school in the dark. Then the clocks were set back to India's time. Buddhist clergy and astrologers welcomed the change, because they had kept working to the old clock all along.
Questions about time in Sri Lanka
What time zone is Sri Lanka in?
Sri Lanka keeps one time zone, Sri Lanka Standard Time, SLST, UTC+5:30, across the whole island. It is set by regulation. The Time and Frequency Laboratory of the Measurement Units, Standards and Services Department keeps it. The clocks do not change for summer.
Is Sri Lanka on the same time as India?
Yes. Colombo and New Delhi show the same time all year. Sri Lanka spent about ten years on a different time. Its clock has matched India's since it was set back half an hour.
Does Sri Lanka have daylight saving time?
No. Sri Lanka stays on SLST, UTC+5:30 all year. The jump forward during the power crisis was a change of standard time, not a summer clock. It was undone ten years later. The gap with Europe and North America still moves twice a year, because they change their clocks.
What is the time difference between Sri Lanka and the UK?
London is 5 hours 30 minutes behind Sri Lanka in the British winter. The gap is one hour less in summer, when the UK moves its clocks forward. A call at the start of the London working day reaches Colombo in the early afternoon, local time.
What is the time difference between Sri Lanka and the Middle East?
Dubai is 1 hour 30 minutes behind Sri Lanka all year. Riyadh is 2 hours 30 minutes behind Sri Lanka, also all year round. None of the three moves its clocks for summer.
Time zone names for developers
| IANA zone | Standard time | Daylight saving time |
|---|---|---|
| Asia/Colombo | SLST, UTC+5:30 | No |
Sources
We checked each fact on this page against these sources on 30 September 2026. Times, offsets and clock changes come from the time zone database.