ISLAMABAD, Nov 14: The government on Wednesday appointed new member customs and a chief collector for the North region.

According to the notifications, Mahmood Alam had been appointed as member customs and Shahid Rahim Sheikh as new chief collector for the North region -- a new post created under the reforms of the customs department as part of overall tax administration reform project.

Earlier, Mr Sheikh had been posted in his own pay and scale in BPS-20 as member customs against the higher grade (BPS-21) for the last two years. However, he was elevated to the next grade recently.

The government had already appointed Muneer Qureshi as chief collector of South region.

In the new structure, the country has been divided into two regions, North and South. The North Region will consist of the following model customs collectorates — Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Multan, Sambrial, and Faisalabad.

The South Region will consist of the following model customs collectorate of PACCS, Custom House Karachi; appraisement; exports, port Muhammad Bin Qasim, preventive, post clearance audit, Hyderabad, Quetta and Gwadar.

The FBR through another notification appointed Khawar Khurshid Butt, a BPS-21 officer of Income Tax Group, as Member Facilitation and Taxpayers’ Education.