Indian tax authorities have raided nearly 100 restaurants across 45 cities since late 2025, uncovering what officials describe as a systemic pattern of sales manipulation — and the investigation has placed restaurant POS software provider Petpooja at the centre of the probe.
GST and income tax officials allege that restaurants used Petpooja’s software to delete or alter cash transaction records after the fact, reducing reported sales to lower their tax liability. Sources from the tax department told Inc42 that concealed sales in Punjab alone have already crossed ₹5,000 crore, with the figure expected to rise. Several arrests have been made, and more are anticipated in the coming weeks.
The investigation initially focused on biryani chains in Hyderabad before expanding nationwide. Officials say the practice was concentrated on cash transactions — which are harder to trace than digital payments — and typically carried out at the end of a quarter or financial year. Establishments serving alcohol were particularly implicated, given the sharp tax rate differential between food (5%) and liquor (18%).
A key allegation is that Petpooja’s software enabled bulk deletion of bills within a selected date range, and allowed owners to reduce total sales figures by quietly removing line items across multiple bills without disturbing bill numbers. “The entire restaurant ecosystem knows about this,” one industry insider told Inc42, requesting anonymity.
Petpooja, founded in 2011 by brothers Parthiv and Apurv Patel and serving over one lakh restaurants across India, the Middle East, the US, and Africa, has denied the allegations. The company stated that bill modification is a standard feature across all POS and accounting software globally, necessary for correcting errors and managing cancellations. It added that it maintains audit logs of all changes and that “there is no provision for bulk deletion of records.” The company reported revenue of ₹101 crore in FY25.
Earlier in 2026, tax officials raided Petpooja’s offices and seized 60 terabytes of data from its cloud infrastructure to examine deleted or altered records. Petpooja said it will “extend full cooperation to any authorities seeking information within the scope of due process.”
Source: Inc42 Media