Bangalore: Wipro Ltd today (Apr 16, 2004) said the Rs 261.4 crore demand notice by the Income Tax department on it had a "bigger impact than the backlash in the US" and added they would file an appeal against the notice.

"The backlash we had, if we measure the impact on business was not in the US, but in India with this tax claim," Wipro vice chairman Vivek Paul told reporters in Bangalore.

Wipro corporate vice president Suresh Senapaty said the firm would appeal against the notice, as advised by its legal cell and outside consultants.

He said the firm had not made provision for payment of tax to the tune of Rs 230 crore.

Senapaty said NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies) was lobbying with the Government on behalf of the software industry against the tax notice, but denied that the company had approached the Prime Minister's Office for redressal.

The Income Tax department has served a Rs 261.4 crore notice on the company by denying it a tax holiday on some of the software technology park units in Bangalore under section 10-A of the IT Act, which gives a 10-year holiday for setting up such units in export processing zones.