February 25, 1982

WHILE many designers have devised ways of dealing imaginatively with tile, there are few opportunities in the real world of designerand-client relationships for budget-free and fanciful tiling schemes. Price and high installation costs tend to make tile applications a luxury in interior design. But if given the chance, few designers would not jump at the opportunity of doing whatever they pleased with tile. An exhibition, entitled ''Casa Tile '82,'' sponsored by the Italian Tile Center, gave some of New York's top designers a chance to do just that.

The Transit Authority announced yesterday that it would stop installing plastic electrical tubing in subway stations as a result of warnings by health authorities that the material releases toxic fumes when burned. Transit officials said, however, that they would leave in place the tubing, made of polyvinyl chloride, that was recently installed in more than 50 stations throughout the IRT system. ''I don't think it is warranted to go back and tear it all out now,'' John D. Simpson, the Transit Authority president, said at a meeting in Manhattan of the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. 'Most Telling Admission' The tubing already installed presents ''no imminent hazard,'' Mr. Simpson said, because it carries low-voltage wire and is in wellventilated areas.

A Reuters article in Business Day on Jan. 18 incorrectly reported a domestic oil estimate. The American Petroleum Institute estimated 1981 domestic oil demand at an average of 15.9 million barrels daily, while domestic crude oil production was 8.6 million barrels daily, little changed from 1980.

A graph in Business Day on Tuesday incorrectly stated the contribution to revenues made by two Dennison Corporation divisions. The company's technical papers division accounted for 14 percent of revenues in 1980 and the industrial systems division for 31 percent.

A city panel that has been accused repeatedly of being overly generous to real-estate developers refused yesterday to grant multimillion-dollar tax breaks to two large commercial projects in Manhattan. A third applicant, facing probable rejection of his request, withdrew from consideration altogether. The unanimous votes of the city's Industrial and Commercial Incentive Board provided the first concrete indication that the Koch administration planned to act on its pledge to remold and restrict its tax-abatement policies. The board also voted, as it said it would, to prevent automatic tax breaks in Manhattan south of 96th Street. ''I think this is an evolution,'' said Karen N. Gerard, the Deputy Mayor for Economic Policy and Development and chairman of the sevenmember board after its meeting at 1 Police Plaza. ''Abatement is a tool which has to change because the times have changed.''