You want to do something simple with XML. How about XML::Simple? and one line of code:

#! perl -slw
use strict;
use Data::Dump qw[ pp ];
use XML::Simple;

my $xml = XMLin( do{ local $/; <DATA> } );

pp $xml;

__DATA__
<?xml version = "1.0"?>
<response>

<custid>101010101</custid>
    <status>success</status>
<responsecode>11</responsecode>
<kf></kf>
<cn>1111222233334444555</cn>
<neta>7.00</neta>
<prid>X111111111111111</prid>
<ano>22222222</ano>
<trxid>33333333</trxid>
<description>Transfer Completed</description>
</response>
[download]

Output:

c:\test>junk4
{
  ano => 22222222,
  cn => "1111222233334444555",
  custid => 101010101,
  description => "Transfer Completed",
  kf => {},
  neta => "7.00",
  prid => "X111111111111111",
  responsecode => 11,
  status => "success",
  trxid => 33333333,
}
[download]