Which of the following is /are among the noticeable features of the recommendations of the Thirteenth Finance Commission? 1) A design for the Goods and Services Tax, and a compensation package linked to adherence to the proposed design 2) A design for the creation of lakhs of jobs in the next ten years in consonance with India's demographic dividend 3) Devolution of a specified share of central taxes to local bodies as grants Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

The correct answer is C (1 and 3 only). The Thirteenth Finance Commission under Vijay Kelkar (report tabled 2009, period 2010-15) is remembered for fiscal consolidation and for its GST roadmap.

• Statement 1 is correct. The Commission proposed a design for GST and tied a compensation package to states adopting it. GST was finally introduced through the 101st Amendment in 2017, with compensation to states for five years.
• Statement 2 is wrong. Job-creation targets are not a Finance Commission function. Its terms of reference are tax devolution, grants and fiscal health, not employment planning or demographic dividend design. That belongs to the planning and labour domain.
• Statement 3 is correct. The Commission recommended grants to rural and urban local bodies, pegged to a share of the divisible pool of central taxes, following the 73rd and 74th Amendments.

Mains link: the GST design and the local-body grants are central to Centre-state fiscal federalism and to debates on the Finance Commission's role in fiscal consolidation.

Trap: aspirants pick D because the 13th FC's recommendations sound broadly developmental. Check each statement against the Commission's actual terms of reference.