The recommendations of the fourteenth finance commission cover the five year period as:

Question

Accepted Answer

The correct option is 2:

The recommendations of India's Finance Commissions are mandated by Article 280 of the Constitution and typically cover a five-year period. The Fourteenth Finance Commission (FFC) was constituted in January 2013 under the chairmanship of Dr. Y. V. Reddy. Its recommendations were crucial for defining the financial relations between the Union and State governments, particularly regarding the devolution of taxes. The period for which the FFC's recommendations were enforced and governed the distribution of resources was the five financial years beginning on April 1, 2015, and ending on March 31, 2020. This tenure is particularly significant as the FFC recommended a massive increase in the vertical devolution share to states, raising it from 32% to 42% of the divisible pool of central taxes.

The incorrect option is 1: 2010-2015.
This period was covered by the Thirteenth Finance Commission (ThFC), which was chaired by Dr. Vijay L. Kelkar. The ThFC's mandate covered the fiscal period starting from April 1, 2010, and ending on March 31, 2015.

The incorrect option is 3: 2020-2025.
This period is covered by the recommendations of the Fifteenth Finance Commission (FFC), which was constituted in 2017 under the chairmanship of N. K. Singh. The 15th FC's recommendations began in the financial year 2020-21 and extended through 2025-26 (initially 2020-2025, but later extended by one year).

The incorrect option is 4: 2013-2018.
While the Fourteenth Finance Commission was constituted in 2013, the five-year period of its recommendations always aligns with the formal financial years used for planning and budget implementation, which ran from 2015 to 2020, not 2013 to 2018.