Thiruvananthapuram: In a statewide operation nicknamed Operation Phanum, the State GST Department carried out simultaneous raids in 42 restaurants across Kerala. The restaurants were picked following covert intelligence gathering over the last six months.

The raids, jointly conducted by the Intelligence and Enforcement wings of the Kerala GST Department, were conducted by 250 GST Intelligence and Enforcement officials divided into 50 teams. "We have exposed tax evasion to the tune of crores in the preliminary stage itself," a top GST official said. "However, the evasion in restaurants is notoriously hard to quantify," the official said. "They might have been evading tax for over five years but they will be keeping records only for the last three months," he said.

Here are some of the methods of evasion employed in restaurants. One, non-issuance of bills. Two, re-possession of the issued bills from customers once payments are made. Three, destruction of bills. Four, suppression of sales by rigging the in-house software. Five, issuing a new bill series every day. Six, supplying bills with the same serial number to multiple customers. Seven, creation of several UPI transaction IDs in the name of the restaurant’s employees to accept money.

A top source said that many of these 42 restaurants under the scanner were also seen to provide outdoor catering, and services to events like marriages and parties without any official accounts.

GST sleuths had first identified these restaurants based on tip-offs and had then kept a close watch on their accounting practices during the last few months. "We had collected bills from these restaurants and the raids have been initiated only after we had accumulated a large quantity of such bills," the official said.

The Department had also used the videos of food vloggers on social media to collect information. GST officials had also kept constant tabs on the WhatsApp and other social media groups started by these restaurants.

Parallelly, the GST officials are also raiding the houses of the owners and partners of restaurants where evasion is rampant.

GST officials said the operation's title, Phanum, is a play on the internet slang 'Fanum Tax', a term that denotes the theft of food between friends.