use tidy with HTML::Template

Hello all,
I am using HTML::Template to create dynamic webpages with perl.

If I use the Template Tag <TMPL_VAR NAME ="name"> inside the <a> tag like:

<a href="<TMPL_VAR NAME=path>">
tidy converts this to
<a href="%3CTMPL_VAR%20NAME=path%3E">

Is there any possibility that tidy leaves this Template Tag unaltered?

Regards
Stefan