Paytm's top management struck a confident note in its post-earnings call on Tuesday after turning profitable in the June quarter, projecting a strong operational profitability and outlining a sharp focus on cost control and core business growth.One 97 Communications Ltd. is "striving" towards a 15–20% Ebitda margin over the next two-three years, Group Chief Financial Officer Madhur Deora said.While the company did not provide a specific guidance on margin, Deora said Paytm expects a considerable improvement in margin by the end of the current financial year.Projection of strong contribution margin in the high-50s will help support this trajectory, he said.During the quarter ended June, payment processing margin was comfortably above the guided three-basis-point margin. On a consolidated basis, the margin was at 3.7%.Overall, contribution profit was at Rs 1,151 crore, up 52% on-year, which also aided the company's earnings. The contribution margin came in at 60%, marking an increase of 10 percentage points YoY on account of higher share of distribution of financial services revenue, increase in net payment revenue and lower direct expenses.Lower expenses, including those of employee stock ownership plan and higher other income, helped Paytm in reporting its first-ever profit since it got listed on the bourses in November 2021.From the next quarter, Paytm will stop reporting adjusted Ebitda and ESOP-related lines and will only report employee costs, Chief Executive Officer Vijay Shekhar Sharma said.The company indicated that indirect expenses will not grow in line with revenues and Sharma said there was always room to cut costs, though not materially. To this, Deora added that most "low-hanging fruit" on cost optimisation had already been addressed, but some further efficiencies were still possible.Sharma also emphasised that Paytm's payments business was profitable even in the absence of a merchant discount rate. He reiterated that the company was not basing its strategy on the possible reintroduction of MDR and believes that there is still a 4–5x growth opportunity in India's payments ecosystem, led by Unified Payments Interface and deeper merchant penetration.The management also acknowledged challenges in the credit vertical and said that the discontinuation of the buy now, pay later product was due to its unsecured nature. However, Deora said that the consumer credit business has likely bottomed, and that personal loans and BNPL are expected to return gradually.On its point of sale devices business, Doera said that it has crossed the 1 million mark, with Paytm gaining market share in the space. He also hinted at a large opportunity in card payments, especially by expanding card machine penetration.Paytm's 20% Margin Target, Focus On Cost Discipline And More: Five Key Takeaways From Management Concall. Read more on Earnings by NDTV Profit.