The Finance Commission is appointed by the President of India for a tenure of

Article 280(1) of the Constitution of India requires the President to constitute a Finance Commission by order at fixed intervals, not just once: a fresh Commission must be set up "at the expiration of every fifth year, or at such earlier time as the President considers necessary." This five-year interval is the periodic cycle at which the President appoints (constitutes) a new Commission — distinct from any individual member's own term of office, which the appointing order fixes separately under the Finance Commission Act, 1951.

Applying this to the question: exam usage treats the phrase "appointed ... for a tenure of" as referring to this periodic re-constitution interval, not to an individual member's own term of office. Under that standard reading, the interval Article 280(1) fixes is five years — the quinquennial cycle — unless the President decides an earlier reconstitution is necessary (for instance, to align the recommendation period with the Union Budget cycle). This is the standard exam answer, corresponding to the option "5 years."

Contrasting the other durations offered:

• "2 years" is shorter than the five-year cycle Article 280(1) prescribes; a two-year interval is not used for reconstituting the Finance Commission.

• "3 years" is likewise shorter than the constitutionally fixed five-year period between Finance Commissions.

• "4 years" falls one year short of the quinquennial cycle Article 280(1) mandates.

Cross-checking against practice: Finance Commissions have historically been constituted roughly every five years since the First Commission in 1951 (the 15th Commission in 2017, the 16th in 2023), consistent with the five-year cycle fixed by Article 280(1) — confirming five years as the standard exam answer for this quinquennial interval.