Centre has announced since December a series of measures to stop sugar prices from dropping sharply due to a bumper harvest, but it has not met with much success. Cane arrears have topped over Rs 160 billion as of March 31. From doubling import duty to fixing the quota of sugar that mills can sell in the open-market, the government has tried it all. A few weeks ago, it fixed a compulsory export quota of 2 million tonnes (mt) that mills have to ship in the next few months to part absorb the surplus. The government also allowed the export of white sugar till September 2018 as part of the Duty Free Import Authorisation (DFIA) scheme. As part of this scheme, imports are valid till the end of September 2021. Many industry experts said this move will not make much difference unless it was supplemented by some incentives, especially since global sugar prices have dropped sharply in the last few years due to a glut.