Venezuela is poised to raise its gasoline prices, which are currently the lowest in the world at only five U.S. cents per gallon. 

The Venezuelan government wants to raise prices, but fears a major public backlash, according to the International Business Times. 

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro first announced plans to raise prices in December, but there was no movement on the issue since the plan was proposed. 

Last week, the proposal was reintroduced when Oil Minister Rafael Ramírez repeated Maduro's proposal during a meeting with reporters. 

While Ramírez did not give a time-line for when the price increase will take effect, he said the new price will definitely be lower than the high costs of gasoline in other countries. 

"We will not put on the international price because that's not the idea, but it will be a price which is reasonable," Ramírez told Reuters during a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the discovery of oil in Venezuela. 

"There has to be a discussion (about the price rise). It is cheaper to fill a tank than to buy a cigarette," he added. 

The low cost in gasoline causes state-run oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., or PDVSA, $12.5 billion in losses. According to figures provided by the Venezuelan government, it costs PDVSA 28 times more to produce gasoline than its sale price. For diesel, it costs 50 times more than what consumers pay while filling up their vehicle. 

"We are the country with highest gas consumption per capita and we have the lowest gas prices in the world. It can't be justified," Ramírez said.

PDVSA and the Venezuelan economy as a whole have seen an economic downturn recently, prompting PDVSA to announce that it will sell U.S.-based Citgo Petroleum Corp. in an effort to better the country's financial standing. The company said it will sell Citgo if can find a buyer willing to pay at least $10 billion to acquire the company. 

Citgo, a subsidiary of PDVSA, is based in Houston. It owns three refineries that handle around 749,000 barrels per day in Texas, Louisiana and Illinois. It also sells gasoline in around 6,000 stations and donates heating oil to 200,000 low-income families during the wintertime. 

The topic is a sensitive one in Venezuela, because the country has the largest crude reserves in the world, making citizens feel entitled to cheap gas. 

"This sense of entitlement to gas is quite widespread," Harold Trinkunas, director of the Latin American Initiative at The Brookings Institution, told The International Herald Tribune. "Venezuelans generally do not have a strong sense of the costs associated with the production of gas. And clearly Venezuela is selling gas far below even the costs of production."

Most experts see President Maduro's plan to increase prices as a tactic to improve the nation's economy. However, this may not bode well with the public, which is already generally distrusting of the government. 

Earlier in 2014, there was widespread anti-government protests in Caracas, the capital of the country, as well as other areas. There were also violent protests in the early 1990s due to the doubling of gas prices and a 30 percent increase in public transportation costs. Hundreds died in the protests. 

"It is a legacy in Venezuela inherited by Hugo Chávez, and now [followed by] the Maduro government, but it's unsustainable," said Miguel Tinker-Salas, a professor of Latin American history at Pomona College.