How to read properties file using perl

my $inputFile = "test.properties";

#############################################
# Get the variables passed from property file
#############################################
my @parmList = &read_parameters;

##############################################################
# populate hash map
##############################################################
%parameters = @parmList;

#print the property1 value from test.properties
print "$parameters{"property1"}"\n"

##############################
#Subroutine to read the values
##############################
sub read_parameters {

# my $importFile = $filePath . $inputFile;
my $importFile = $inputFile;
my $parameterName = '';
my $parameterValue = '';

# open the file and read the contents into an array
open(DATA, "<$importFile") or die "\n\nUnable to open input file: $!\n\n"; my @parmListTemp = ;
close(DATA);

my @parmList = ();

foreach my $row (@parmListTemp){
chop $row;

# ignore blanks and lines that start with #
if (($row ne '') && ($row !~ /^#/)) {

# get parameters and their values and put into an array
($parameterName, $parameterValue) = split(/=/, $row);

if($debugLevel >= 3) {print "\n\n Parameter $parameterName value is $parameterValue"; };

push(@parmList, $parameterName);
push(@parmList, $parameterValue);
};
};