The Indonesian government plans to restrict vehicle fuel consumption to save energy amid the soaring global oil prices, a senior official said Tuesday.

"To avoid domestic fuel price rises, the government will restrict fuel consumption of government and private vehicles, but (the restriction) doesn't apply to public transportation," State Minister for National Development Planning Paskah Suzetta told reporters at his office.

The policy, he said, aims to save energy consumption as the global oil prices touched 75 U.S. dollars per barrel several days earlier.

He said he hoped a regulation on the matter would be issued in August this year.

Indonesia is a member of the oil cartel OPEC but production has declined over the last few years, prompting the government to import fuel to meet domestic demand.

Fuel prices in the countries were among the cheapest in the world until the government last October more than doubled domestic fuel prices to offset the costly fuel importation.

Source: Xinhua