Hyderabad biryani chains in fresh trouble as I-T finds raw material weights were tweaked

Biryani

The Income Tax Department has widened its investigation into several popular biryani restaurant chains in Hyderabad. After conducting searches at the restaurants, officials have now shifted their focus to the suppliers of rice and meat.

According to officials, there is evidence that the weights of raw materials were deliberately changed in records to hide the true scale of business and avoid paying taxes, The Times of India reported.

The I-T teams on Monday and Tuesday visited the premises of rice and mutton suppliers who were linked to the biryani restaurants under investigation. Officers checked purchase bills, supply registers and delivery data to find out the actual quantity of goods supplied to the restaurants. One of the suppliers examined is located in the AC Guards and Redhill area of the city.

During the inspections, investigators found several irregularities. In one case, the quantity of mutton recorded in the books was much lower than what was actually supplied. However, the amount of money shown for that mutton was increased to match the dishes prepared and sold by the restaurant.

This method made it look as if the restaurant had used less raw material while still producing the same amount of food. Officials believe this was done to hide the real volume of business and earnings. This mismatch between quantity and cost has now become a major point of investigation as officers try to calculate the total value of the alleged manipulation, TOI reported.

This new development comes after a three-day search operation was carried out earlier at three major biryani chains in Hyderabad. During those searches, the Income Tax Investigation Wing allegedly came across large amounts of income that was not recorded in the official accounts.

According to the report, searches of outlets and back-end software companies in Hyderabad and Ahmedabad have established that cash sales were routinely deleted from the restaurant chains' billing systems.

Before the raids, officials also carried out test purchases using cash and UPI at different branches. These trial transactions helped them understand how bills were being removed from the system later.

Now, by checking supplier records, restaurant books and the billing software data together, officers are trying to get a clear picture of how much income was actually hidden. They believe that a combination of reduced raw material entries, inflated costs and deleted cash bills was used to suppress the real business figures.