Hewkett-Packard, the world's largest technology company by revenue, said it would challenge and refute tax claims made on it by Indian tax authorities.

The company's Indian unit had been transparent and had co-operated fully with the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) in its investigations, a spokeswoman for the company told Reuters in an emailed statement on Thursday.

"HP India refutes the DRI's position and will challenge its claims through the judicial process," she said in the statement.

Earlier the Economic Times newspaper said that India's DRI had slapped a tax notice of 14.5 billion rupees ($318.4 million) on HP India for allegedly evading customs duty.

The company undervalued components and spare parts imported from countries like Singapore and the U.S. and thus evaded customs duty, the report said quoting a tax official.

The tax demand pertained to duty evasion for the past five years and was raised after an investigation initiated in September 2008 by tax authorities in Delhi and Bangalore, the report said.

Reuters could not immediately contact Indian tax authorities for their comments.