Current time in Colombo

Sri Lanka · UTC+5:30

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Asia/Colombo

UTC offset

UTC+5:30

Daylight Saving

No — not observed

Time zone ID

Asia/Colombo

Business hours

8:30 AM – 5:00 PM IST (Monday–Friday)

About Colombo's time zone

Colombo follows India Standard Time (IST, UTC+5:30), sharing its time zone with India despite Sri Lanka being a separate country. Sri Lanka previously used UTC+6 and UTC+5:30 at different times, but has maintained UTC+5:30 since 2006 for practical alignment with India, its largest trading partner. The 30-minute offset from whole hours makes Sri Lanka one of a small group of countries — alongside India, Nepal, Iran, and Afghanistan — that use non-standard half or quarter-hour offsets.

Best time to call Colombo

Calling from	Recommended window
London	3:30 AM – 12:30 PM GMT
Singapore	11:00 AM – 8:00 PM SGT
Dubai	7:30 AM – 4:30 PM GST
New York	10:30 PM – 7:30 AM ET

Did you know? Sri Lanka changed its time zone three times in the 20th century, including one change during the Cold War era when it briefly moved to UTC+6 (1982-1996) partly for political reasons distinct from neighboring India. The frequent time zone changes caused considerable documentation headaches for historical records, and Sri Lankan government archives from that period require knowing which time zone applied to each document.

Cities in the same time zone