diff --git a/package/tzdata/Config.in b/package/tzdata/Config.in
index c0ede1f55c..1be68149b5 100644
--- a/package/tzdata/Config.in
+++ b/package/tzdata/Config.in
@@ -23,14 +23,4 @@ config BR2_PACKAGE_TZDATA_ZONELIST
 	  The full list is the list of files in the time zone database source,
 	  not including the build and .tab files.
 
-config BR2_PACKAGE_TZDATA_LOCALTIME
-	string "default local time"
-	help
-	  The time zone to install as the default local time, expressed as a
-	  tzdata location, such as:
-	    GMT, Europe/Paris, America/New_York, Pacific/Wallis...
-
-	  If empty, no local time will be set, and the dates will be
-	  expressed in UTC.
-
 endif
diff --git a/package/tzdata/tzdata.mk b/package/tzdata/tzdata.mk
index 74263e173e..1cb5b3f00f 100644
--- a/package/tzdata/tzdata.mk
+++ b/package/tzdata/tzdata.mk
@@ -39,14 +39,8 @@ define TZDATA_INSTALL_TARGET_CMDS
 	cp -a $(@D)/_output/* $(TARGET_DIR)/usr/share/zoneinfo
 	cd $(TARGET_DIR)/usr/share/zoneinfo;    \
 	for zone in posix/*; do                 \
-	    ln -sfn "$${zone}" "$${zone##*/}";  \
+	    ln -sfn "$${zone}" "$${zone##*/}";    \
 	done
-	if [ -n "$(BR2_PACKAGE_TZDATA_LOCALTIME)" ]; then                   \
-	    cd $(TARGET_DIR)/etc;                                           \
-	    ln -sf ../usr/share/zoneinfo/$(BR2_PACKAGE_TZDATA_LOCALTIME)    \
-	           localtime;                                               \
-	    echo "$(BR2_PACKAGE_TZDATA_LOCALTIME)" >timezone;               \
-	fi
 endef
 
 $(eval $(generic-package))