Income tax Department carries out nation-wide verification exercise on restaurants suppressing turnover

• Nation-wide survey by the Income Tax Department (ITD) on 62 restaurants across 46 cities in 22 States/UTs detected sales suppression of ~Rs. 408 crore in the Food & Beverage (F&B) sector.
• Linked to the SAKSHAM NUDGE campaign — a CBDT "trust-based, voluntary compliance" nudge programme using data analytics to prompt taxpayers to file updated returns under Section 139(8A) of the Income-tax Act.
• Examinable for UPSC as a case study in direct tax administration, behavioural nudging, tax buoyancy and faceless/data-driven enforcement (GS-III Economy).