Sri Lanka Standard Time was announced effective midnight yesterday (April 11) affirming the accepted time of GMT + 5.30 hrs.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa announced that a website would display the Standard SL time, to help TV and broadcast stations, telecommunications servers and others to make accurate statements and displays of the time in the country.

It would be mandatory for these institutions to display the Standard Time in all communications. It was observed that many TV and radio stations announced times that differed from the Standard Time by a few or more minutes.

The Minister of Cooperatives and Internal Trade Johnston Fernando authorized the issue of a special Gazette notification on the Standard Time, which has been synchronized with GMT, to minimize difficulties faced due to contradictory times displayed and announced by institutions on whom the public depend to know the correct time.

The website when active would be www.sltime.org