$28? Was it mailed to you overnight? It seems like a lot of money just to have your passport mailed back to you from your local consulate/BLS office... even FedEx has flat rate shipping now and it's much, much cheaper.

The last time I dealt with the Indian consulate in NY was when I applied for OCI... I just sent them a self-addressed, pre-paid USPS priority mail envelope (was ~$5 at the time) with my application and they sent me my passport back using that. This just seems like another example of why middlemen/outsourcing companies like BLS are just terrible value for what they provide (literally nothing).