Although Indonesia has a plenty of oil production fields and is among the top 25 oil-producing nations in the world, it is a net importer of petroleum. Gasoline is so heavily subsidized that at the end of 2012, the country had the lowest fuel prices of any net oil-consuming nation in the world, according to the World Bank. The second-lowest was the United States, where a gallon sold for $3.29 on Dec. 31 — nearly twice as much as in Indonesia.

The Indonesian Finance Ministry has estimated that the country will exceed the 2013 budget quota of 46 trillion liters, or 12 trillion gallons, of subsidized fuel by at least 15 percent or more. Savings from eliminating or reducing a fuel subsidy could go to crucial public social programs including health care, as well as much-needed infrastructure investment, according to analysts.

Ms. Natalia said she would be willing to endure higher gasoline prices — and the accompanying increases in the prices of food, clothing and other items — if the government would spend every penny of the money it saved on social and national development programs.

But even then, she had doubts. Ms. Natalia predicted that unscrupulous traders would start hoarding staple foods like rice before a fuel price increase to drive prices up even further, perhaps setting off a crime wave in Jakarta.

“It’s the ordinary people who are victimized,” she said.

Fuel subsidies are a highly political and emotional issue in Indonesia. Some of the unrest that led to the ouster of the authoritarian PresidentSuharto, who died in 2008, was rooted in fuel prices.

Mr. Yudhoyono drew theatrical, albeit minor, protests when he raised gasoline prices in 2005 and 2008, mainly because he gave poorer Indonesians cash handouts to ease the blow. But he then lowered fuel prices before his landslide re-election in 2009, while keeping the handouts in effect, angering his political rivals.

In March 2012, Mr. Yudhoyono proposed raising fuel prices again, but even members of his own governing coalition revolted to embarrass him, quashing his plan at a raucous House of Representatives session as student and labor groups outside clashed with riot police officers on live national television.