If the file only contains tab-separated data you can read it easily like this:

{
    local $/ = "\t";
    while (my $data_frag = <FH>)
    {
        # process $data_frag here
    }
}
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If you reformat the above, I'll look at the second part.

Update

While my statement above is correct, now that you have fixed the formatting, I see it is not applicable to your question.

Regards,