Perl if conditional processing seems to not be working

Been on this for a week now. Not able to make an if condition to work in perl. Not sure where I am going wrong.

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

local $/ = undef;

my $data = <DATA>;

$data =~ s/(\s+)/ /gi;
$data =~ s/\[|\]//gi;

while ($data =~ /:(?<end>\d+) (?<notneeded>- [a-z0-9\-']+) (?<needed>[a-z0-9\-']+?) (?<start>\d+)(?=:)/ig) {
    if (($+{start} - $+{end}) == 0) {
        $data =~ s/:(?<end>\d+) (?<notneeded>- [a-z0-9\-']+) (?<needed>[a-z0-9\-']+?) (?<start>\d+)(?=:)/:$+{end} $+{needed} $+{start}/i;
        print "\nFull match: '" . "$&" . "'\n";
        print "\nStart: '" . "$+{start}" . "'\n";
        print "\nEnd: '" . "$+{end}" . "'\n";
        print "\nDiff: '" . ($+{start} - $+{end}) . "'\n";
    }

}

#print "$data\n\n";

__DATA__

lorem          [1170:1540]
ipsum          [1540:2040]
dolor          [2040:2350]
sit            [2350:2510]
amet           [2510:2670]
consectetur    [2670:3130]
adipiscing     [3130:3240]
elit           [3240:3470]
quisque        [3550:4070]
egestas        [4070:4290]
magna          [4290:4570]
sit            [4620:4650]
amet           [4780:5390]
molestie       [5480:6660]
imperdiet      [6660:6890]
- velit
lectus         [6920:6950]
egestas        [7130:7530]
enim           [7570:7830]
non            [7830:8160]
ornare         [8160:8260]
eros           [8260:8600]
- neque
non            [8600:8890]
risus          [9120:9450]
aenean         [9450:9570]
venenatis      [9570:9820]
- hendrerit
- urna
- nec
- bibendum
nunc           [11210:11380]
lobortis       [11380:11470]
in             [11470:11710]
in             [11780:11810]
facilisis      [12960:13340]
urna           [13340:13460]
in             [13460:13920]
neque          [14070:14630]
bibendum       [14630:14930]
lobortis       [14930:15250]
- maecenas
- efficitur
- fermentum
eros           [17060:17450]
malesuada      [17450:17760]
posuere        [17760:17810]
nisi           [18050:18080]
- tristique
- sit

If I change the if conditional statement from above to any of the below variations, it still seems not to be working.

if ($+{start} == $+{end})
if (($+{start} - $+{end}) eq 0)
if ("$+{start}" eq "$+{end})")

The desired output is only the second match, which is ":8600 - neque non 8600"