The great biryani audit: UPI IDs, locker cash and ghost bills — anatomy of a multi-crore restaurant tax evasion probe
Times of India
by SHREEDHAR RATHI AND U SUDHAKAR REDDYFebruary 23, 2026
AI-Generated Deep Dive Summary
The Indian government has uncovered a significant tax evasion scheme within Hyderabad's bustling restaurant industry, targeting prominent chains like Pista House and Shah Ghouse. This investigation, initiated by the Income Tax Department, utilized digital forensics to analyze data from Petpooja, a widely-used billing platform serving over 100,000 eateries. The probe revealed that restaurants were systematically deleting cash transaction records, leading to an underreporting of sales by approximately Rs 70,000 crore over six years. This figure represents nearly 27% of total revenue, a substantial portion of which—Rs 13,317 crore—was attributed specifically to post-billing deletions.
The investigation began with anomalies detected in cash invoice deletions, particularly around month-end periods before GST deadlines. These patterns indicated suspicious activity, prompting officials to conduct searches at nearly 30 locations linked to the implicated chains. The probe highlighted a bulk deletion feature within Petpooja that allowed selective erasure of cash
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Originally published on Times of India on 2/23/2026