Restaurant Income Tax and GST Reconciliation Against Platform TDS Data
This article explains what has and has not been officially established in the October 2026 reports on restaurant tax evasion linked to food-delivery platform TDS, and how a restaurant should reconcile platform data with its books, returns and GST position.
It matters now because mismatch notices and information requests may follow, and an assessee needs to separate media estimates from official findings before deciding what, if anything, to correct. The position stated is as of 12 October 2026.
Where your client stands
Situation 1: The client asks whether the Rs 25,000 crore figure is official
Present position. Media reports in October 2026 estimate potential restaurant tax evasion above Rs 25,000 crore, based on platform TDS records, and say that roughly 8,000 restaurants whose TDS entries came from platforms filed no returns, tied to a separate estimate of Rs 7,500 crore. These are media-reported estimates. They are not an assessment, a demand order or an official certification, and no final demand exists on them.
The reports quote platform transaction amounts of Rs 1,450 crore (FY 2021-22), Rs 1,500 crore (FY 2022-23), Rs 1,700 crore (FY 2023-24) and Rs 2,700 crore (FY 2024-25), adding up to Rs 7,350 crore. Neither coverage nor method has been verified, so it would be wrong to present these amounts as the platforms' sales across the country.
What is officially confirmed. A CBDT press release dated 9 March 2026 records the following:
- an investigation begun in November 2025 turned up cases where restaurant bills had been deleted or altered;
- an AI-assisted comparison set the transaction records of about 1.77 lakh restaurants against their returns;
- on 8 March 2026 surveys at 62 restaurants, spread over 46 cities in 22 states, provisionally brought out roughly Rs 408 crore of suppressed sales;
- the SAKSHAM NUDGE initiative involved communication to 63,000 identified restaurants.