Hyderabad, Feb. 19 -- An investigation into Hyderabad's biryani chains revealed that there is a greater tax evasion scam worth at least Rs 70,000 crore in the restaurant industry, with Karnataka recording the highest evasion and Telangana not far behind.

The Income Tax Department reportedly used data analysis and artificial intelligence (AI) tools to inspect 60 terabytes of data on the pan-India billing software used by over 1 lakh restaurants. The investigators found that although customers paid, the bills were being systematically deleted or altered.

These places reportedly suppressed sales turnover worth approximately Rs 70,000 crore since the 2019-20 financial year, the Times of India reported.

The evasion was discovered when an in...