Starting Sunday Venezuela has its own time zone, joining countries like India, Iran, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka that don’t set their time after the Greenwich Mean Time.

After changing the name of the country to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the coat of arms and the flag, President Hugo Chavez decided to set back the clocks with 30 minutes to improve the productivity because more workers will wake up in daylight.

Chavez also said that this will permit children to wake up with the sun and ease the commuters.

He said: “I don't care if they call me crazy, the new time will go ahead," Daily Mail quotes.

According to him, time zones were made by “imperialists.”

Critics are saying that there is a less practical reason for this change, being in a different time zone to the U.S.

Venezuela is now behind Greenwhich Mean time with four and a half hours and on a different time zone with all its neighbors.

The move was announced in August, but it had suffered two delays because Venezuela wasn’t ready to implement the change.

Some Venezuelans think that this move is only a way of Chavez to landmark every aspect of the country.

Last week airlines and travel agencies were announcing their passengers about the flight changes. Also Caracas stock exchange had to update its software.

Roberto Pulido, country manager for Copa Airlines and president of Venezuela's airline association said: “The time change is going to affect many flights, and lots of airlines still haven't changed their timetables. This is an additional cost, because we've had to update all of our reservation systems,'' Bloomberg reports.

Chavez said that the time changing affects “affects even the biological functioning of the body. It's scientifically proven.”