More than Rs 18,700 crore of unaccounted wealth has been unearthed across the country after searches were conducted by the income tax officials in the last two years, the Central Board of Direct Taxes said on Friday. 

The body has, however, denied any harassment has been caused to any industrialist or business establishment anywhere in the country due to I-T search and survey operations. 

"Search and seizure is conducted on the basis of specific and credible information regarding tax evasion, and only after conducting necessary verification," the CBDT said. Various monitoring tools are used by the I-T department for credible information before a case is selected for any intrusive action, it said denying reports appearing in a section of the media that several captains of industry have complained to the government taxmen are harassing industry by resorting to indiscriminate and increased 'raids'. 

This year, the number of search warrants executed has declined as compared to last year. In the April- October period, 2,190 search warrants have been conducted as against 2,548 in 2010-11 for the same period. Income amounting to Rs 18,750 crore was found and admitted by persons in searches in the last two years, and this year the income admitted is Rs 3,887 crore, CBDT said. 

Besides raids, a lot of disclosures were made in cases were only surveys were conducted and no raids were involved. The number of such surveys conducted was at least 14,000 in the last three years that yielded disclosure of unaccounted wealth of more than Rs 13,800 crore. More than 1,200 surveys have been conducted up to September. "It is therefore incorrect that 'raids' have increased and are indiscriminate," the CBDT said. (Times of India)