perl password hash failing with bad base64 encoding

I am using the script from the web to generate password hash, before i implement it on my website, i am testing it. The only diff is the lib i am using to generate the random string. i looked up the web to find details about the error. I do not find anything helpful to resolve.

error: bad base64 encoding at ./test.pl line xx

here is the code:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use Crypt::Eksblowfish::Bcrypt;
use String::Urandom;

my $password = 'bigtest';
my $encrypted = encrypt_password($password);
print "$password is encrypted as $encrypted\n";

print "Yes the password is $password\n" if check_password($password, $encrypted);
print "No the password is not smalltest\n" if !check_password('smalltest', $encrypted);

#### password routines

# Encrypt a password 
sub encrypt_password {
    my $password = shift;

    # Generate a salt if one is not passed
    my $salt = shift || salt();
    print "salt=".$salt."\n";
    my $settings = '$2a$08$'.$salt;

    # Encrypt it
    return Crypt::Eksblowfish::Bcrypt::bcrypt($password, $settings);
}

# Check if the passwords match
sub check_password {
    my $plain_password = shift;
    my $hashed_password = shift;


    # Regex to extract the salt
    if ($hashed_password =~ m!^\$2a\$\d{2}\$([A-Za-z0-9+\\\/.\$\!]{22})!) {
        # Use a letter by letter match rather than a complete string match to avoid timing attacks
        my $match = encrypt_password($plain_password, $1);
        my $bad = 0;
        for (my $n=0; $n < length $match; $n++) {
            $bad++ if substr($match, $n, 1) ne substr($hashed_password, $n, 1);
        }
        return $bad == 0;
    } else {
        return 0;
    }
}

# Return a random salt
sub salt {
    return Crypt::Eksblowfish::Bcrypt::en_base64(
        String::Urandom->new(LENGTH => 16)
    );
}