sorry... Thank you to all who posted... here's my working code:

package testpack;

# Setup Common Variables
sub import {
  $conf_file = "conf.sh";
  open (FILE, $conf_file) || die "Cant open file. \n";
  while (<FILE>) {
    if (! (/^\W/ || /^export/)) {  # ignore irrelevants
      chomp;

      $var, $value) = split(/=/, $_, 2);
      if ($value =~ s/^\$(\w+)//) {
        $value = "$env_var{$1}$value" || '';
      }
      $env_var{$var} = $value;

      my ($caller_package) = caller;
      *{"${caller_package}::${var}"} = \$value;

    } # end if
  } # end while
} # END import() definition
1;
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