“The fact that a government that has been so reluctant to do this is finally saying they need to do this tells you how bad things must be,” Javier Corrales, a professor of political science at Amherst College, said of the economic situation in Venezuela.

The balancing act is a common one for developing nations, particularly those rich in natural resources. In Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and other parts of Asia, protests have erupted in recent years when governments have cut fuel subsidies. In Indonesia, a 30 percent increase in fuel prices in 2008 led to bloody rioting. In oil-rich Nigeria, protesters paralyzed the nation in 2012 over a rollback in fuel subsidies. In Bolivia, protesters laid siege to the capital in 2010, forcing President Evo Morales, a close ally of Mr. Maduro, to quickly abandon a cut in gasoline subsidies.

Venezuelan officials have said the increase here will probably be gradual, with the goal of eventually charging enough to cover the costs of producing the gasoline.

“What is fair is to say that we have to charge for the hydrocarbons that we sell in the domestic market because we are paying for people to fill their tanks,” Mr. Maduro said this month. He denied that the government needed the extra income to balance its books this year and called for a national dialogue on the issue. But he has insisted that an increase will happen.

“Will it go?” he said late last month. “It will go.”

Rafael Ramírez, the powerful president of the state oil company, who is also the energy minister and vice president in charge of the economy, said last month that the break-even cost of high-octane gasoline, which is what most people buy, would be the equivalent of $1.62 a gallon, far higher than what is charged now.

Venezuelans use about 323,000 barrels of gasoline a day, Mr. Ramírez said last year. And despite having enormous oil reserves, Venezuela has imported tens of thousands of barrels of gasoline a day from the United States over the last two years, according to the Energy Information Administration in Washington, because of problems at refineries. So in effect, the Venezuelan government has been paying market prices — which averaged about $2.70 a gallon last year — to import gasoline that it gives away almost for free.