Hyderabadi biryani is known for its taste and aroma. But would you believe that a simple check on some biryani restaurants in Hyderabad has now uncovered a ₹70,000 crore tax evasion scam? And yes, AI apparently also helped in uncovering this scam, which has made waves on the internet. Here’s how!
Routine Check At Hyderabadi Biryani Chains Reveals Tax Scam
Police uncovering a ₹70,000 crore tax evasion scam with just an in-depth investigation into some Hyderabadi biryani restaurants was not on our bingo cards this year. But yes, it has happened, and it is real. According to a report by the Times of India, there was just a routine inspection at some restaurants in Hyderabad. But as the investigation progressed, police found that many restaurants were earning far more money and pretending they were earning less. The reason? To avoid paying taxes.
This evasion slowly added up to around ₹70,000 crore over the last few years. Reportedly, officials of Hyderabad’s Income Tax Department analysed 60 terabytes of transactional data from a pan-India billing software to reach this conclusion. These eateries were suppressing sales turnover worth thousands of crores since the 2019–20 financial year.
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AI Tools Helped Officials Uncover Details
According to the Times of India, AI tools also helped big time. Officials used multiple artificial intelligence tools, including Generative AI, to crunch data spanning 1.77 lakh restaurant IDs. The software provider recorded post-billing deletions worth ₹13,317 crore out of the ₹70,000 crore across India. The suppression of these sales touched ₹5,141 crore in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana alone.
The top five states where the tax evasion scam was detected were Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Karnataka had the highest instances of deletion at ₹2,000 crore, followed by Telangana at ₹1,500 crore and Tamil Nadu at ₹1,200 crore. These transactions were analysed at the department’s Digital Forensic and Analytics Lab in Ayakar Bhavan, Hyderabad.
But how did this happen? Apparently, restaurants used to delete several cash invoices from their systems to manipulate sales. Some restaurants even followed bulk deletion and wiped bills clean. This is surprising, right? The tax evasion scam was finally uncovered with the help of AI tools that allowed officials to quickly map GST numbers to restaurants using open-source information and online material.
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What do you think of this incident? Do share your thoughts with us in the comment section below!
Cover Image Courtesy: Canva Pro/ TrueCreatives (Representative Image)
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