... ACCESS could also give interfaces as well as VB ...so if i could achieve the same using Perl from the scratch, building a database until generating and maintaining such reports from this database and all that

You seem to be looking for a RAD (Rapid Application Development) system for a database. I suggest you take a look at RBase. It's had a long development history (almost 30 years - much longer than Access has been around) and is very robust. RBase is a commercial product with a GUI for designing database, input forms, reports and application logic. It also has a programming language with embedded SQL, though the language is not as powerful as Perl. Support is very good, and even the company president answers questions on the mailing list.

You also should be able to do you want with Perl, but it would probably mean more work. The easiest way to get a database engine is to install the SQLite module. Then if you need a GUI you can choose from Perl/Tk, Gtk, wxPerl and Prima, with their associated learning curves. In any case it would also be good to learn SQL, since variants of the language are used for most databases you will find.