BENGALURU: Digital payments and commerce platform Paytm saw its net losses climb four-fold to Rs 1,549 crore for the year ended March 31, 2016, according to documents filed with the Registrar of Companies (RoC). The Noida-based One97 Communications , which runs Paytm, had reported a loss of Rs 372 crore a year ago compared to a profit of over Rs 5 crore during financial year ended March 2014 as cashbacks, marketing and discounting have hit the company over the past two years.Paytm's founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma drew an annual salary of about Rs 3.1 crore in the 2015-16 fiscal compared to Rs 2.3 crore the year before, according to the filing. TOI reported last week that Sharma, who held over 21% stake in One97 Communications, sold 1% of his holding to raise Rs 325 crore to fund his planned payments bank , having got an in-principle approval from the country's central bank.Neither did the Alibaba-backed company spell out rea sons for its soaring losses, nor did it mention the revenues for fiscal ended March 2016. The company had reported a revenue of Rs 336 crore in 2014-15, as against Rs 210 crore in FY 201314. When contacted, a company spokesperson told TOI in an emailed response, "The technology sector needs front-loaded investments with a long-term vision for profitability. This year, we have invested heavily in marketing, business expansion and manpower. This will not only help us drive sustained growth over the long-term but also bring us closer to our vision of integrating half a billion Indians to the mainstream economy."Paytm, one of the biggest spenders on marketing and advertising in the digital payments space, has further enhanced its budget after the demonetisation of high-value currency notes and the government's push for a cashless economy .According to the filing, the company plans to become operationally profitable by financial year 2019, as stated by a valuation paper commissioned by Paytm and prepared by Deloitte Haskins and Sells