Hi Blackend,
I went to the local post office today where the parcel is received and contacted the post master. He blamed the customs for the duty, was just blunt and clueless (may be acting) and insisted that I pay the amount and take the parcel and not willing to budge. It seems there is very less chance if not impossible for the amount to be waived off or even reduced and told me to contact the airport customs post office to sort this issue. If the amount is not paid and parcel collected from the local PO within 5 days then it seems will be sent back to GPO and finally to the sender.
The customs in chennai are a bunch of corrupted, obnoxious hooligans (had a bad experience with chennai customs before) trying to rip every penny. Also wondering if the post dept. is involved in this mess as well. Not sure why this should happen in my case. My first online order from overseas and possibly my last. May be just my bad luck
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