It wasn’t a whistleblower or a dramatic enforcement raid that first exposed cracks in a massive Rs 70,000-crore tax evasion investigation. It was data — and more specifically, the numbers behind India’s most loved dish: biryani.
When the Income Tax Department began analysing extensive digital billing records in a suspected turnover suppression case, one segment consistently stood out: high-volume biryani businesses.
Biryani is one of the highest-selling single-dish items in India’s organised and semi-organised food sector. In cities like Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Mumbai, it represents not just a meal but a major economic engine.
Because of its scale and predictable pricing, even minor underreporting per plate can snowball into massive unaccounted revenue over time.
During the analytics review, investigators compared three key data streams:
Raw material purchases (especially rice and meat)
Delivery platform transaction data
GST filings and billing software logs
The mismatch was striking. Ingredient volumes suggested one level of sales. Delivery data indicated another. Official GST filings reflected something far lower. Internal software logs often recorded fewer transactions than would be expected from a typical high-demand biryani outlet, particularly during weekends and festivals.
Officials say the business model of many biryani outlets makes discrepancies easier to detect. These outlets typically operate with:
High cash turnover
Fast table rotations
Bulk takeaway orders
Cloud kitchens running multiple brand names from a single backend
Because biryani uses standardised ingredient ratios, analysts can estimate approximate sales volumes based on raw material procurement. When rice and meat purchases far exceed declared plate sales, the data raises red flags.
While Hyderabad’s massive biryani culture made anomalies more visible, the pattern extended across multiple states. Once delivery platform data, GST filings, and billing software logs were cross-verified nationwide, similar inconsistencies emerged.
Authorities have clarified that the investigation is not about biryani as a cuisine, community, or culture. Nor is it specifically targeting biryani sellers. The focus is on alleged software-enabled suppression mechanisms within parts of the restaurant industry.
Biryani became significant only because its popularity and consistency made financial discrepancies harder to conceal.
The so-called “biryani angle” is not the scandal itself — it is the spotlight that illuminated deeper irregularities. In a sector where digital billing systems and delivery apps generate vast amounts of traceable data, small inconsistencies can compound into massive tax gaps.
In this case, India’s favourite dish may have helped investigators unravel one of the largest tax-related data puzzles in recent years — proving once again that in the digital age, numbers often speak louder than raids.
