Ha ha..
Seriously I don't know whom they have sent the Projector... this is the chronology of my order experience.
1. I ordered through Ali express by CC. on Dec 2018
2. They said it will 4-6 weeks to get the product and they promised that I no need to pay any customs charges.
3. Then they provided some Chinese websites with a tracker number of my order status.
4. It provides me the status every day where the product is etc. They have shipped from some china some weird city name.
5. After 1.5 months the status said it arrived Calcutta port.
6. After it arrives Calcutta port the status said it's being sorted in Calcutta warehouse.
7. Then they provided another local Indian courier site to track the shipment.
8. And in a few days I got the product delivered to my home.
9. Feel free to PM me to discuss in detail.
I have ordered plenty through Aliexpress over the years, goods, both expensive and otherwise. The sellers could ship the articles from anywhere, depending on where their stock is located, could be China, HK,Taiwan etc, it is immaterial.
In almost all cases the articles sent have massively undervalued invoices, or they mark them as gifts. Because of the cheap looking packaging it passes the Indian customs without much hassle. But since the past couple of years the customs have become more keen and have started picking up random packages and opening them up. I have also gotten calls from the Bangalore customs a couple of times to confirm the value of the goods. At the end of the day it is the customs officer's prerogative to tax you as he see fit. You cannot argue with them. They'll simply withhold your goods, and there is nothing you can do about it.
If the goods are sent via ordinary post then your local postman delivers them to you at your address, if there are any duties to be paid he'll hand you over a duty demand notice. All the various taxes and cess will be mentioned there.
It's the same if the goods are shipped via FedEx or any of the popular services, they'll hand you over a duty demand notice, if any.
Aliexpress terms make it explicitly clear that local taxes have to be paid if the customs demands it, and it is not in their control.