March 30, 1983

A top Republican leader in the House of Representatives said today that if President Reagan carried out his pledge to veto a popular bill to repeal the 1982 law on withholding taxes from dividends and interest, the President could expect to be overridden. ''The votes are there to override in both the House and Senate,'' Representative Dick Cheney, a Republican whip, told reporters at a breakfast meeting. The measure has not yet been put to a test, but Mr. Cheney said it would pass ''overwhelmingly.'' The Wyoming conservative said that President Reagan was privately warned that he faced being overridden during a stormy meeting with Republican Congressional leaders a week ago. Congressional sources said the warning came from Robert H. Michel, the House Republican leader, and that no one else had disagreed.

THE art of the confectioner is never in more dazzling evidence than at Easter, a tribute, perhaps, to the inspiration springtime provides. For weeks now, shelves and windows of candy and pastry shops have been blossoming forth with a storybook array of chicks and rabbits, flowers and eggs, trimmed with delicate and edible pastel frostings. In this case, as in so many others, content is at least as important as form, for these beauties must be as good to eat as they are to see. The chocolates, candies, cakes and breads that follow were selected from the myriad selection in the city, not only because they are the loveliest and most imaginative, but also because they are delectable and subtly flavored confections.

The Reagan Administration, as part of an effort to aid in restoring the international competitiveness of American industry, proposes to abolish the triple-damage penalty in most antitrust lawsuits. Instead, private parties would be limited to recovering only the actual amount of the damages they suffer. In addition, according to Capitol Hill and Justice Department officials familiar with a draft plan that has been sent to Congressional committees for study, the Administration seeks to improve the protection - and thus the profits - enjoyed by holders of American patents. The idea of reducing the penalties for many common types of antitrust violations has gained acceptance in recent years, but the proposed changes are thought to be the boldest formally advanced by any Administration.

Spurred by an increase of foreign visitors and the growing sophistication of the local audience, New York is strengthening its traditional role as the country's most demanding and diverse city for food. This is true of both its restaurants and its retail shops. Diversity is the city's specialty, closely followed by professionalism in management. Despite the current recession being felt by many restaurants and fancy food shops, New York is now the world's leading market for high-quality wines and luxury food products. And because it has the country's most demanding audience, many chefs and restaurant owners say they feel challenged to test their mettle here. Others, deterred by the city's fast pace, intense competition, crowded facilities and high costs of labor, real estate and construction, say they are content to make their marks in the less pressured surroundings of other cities in the country. If New York does not rival Paris, Tokyo or such northern Italian cities as Milan, Venice and Florence as a source of trend-setting culinary innovation, it makes up for that by offering a far wider selection of ethnic cuisines of remarkably high quality.

A plan to build a $2.1 billion coal- and garbage-fueled power plant on Staten Island on the shore of the Arthur Kill was ''indefinitely postponed'' yesterday by the Power Authority of the State of New York. The action came after Governor Cuomo informed the authority chairman, John S. Dyson, that he would not sign a contract for the sale of power from the proposed plant. Mr. Cuomo's decision, contained in a letter dated March 25, effectively blocked the authority from selling bonds, its sole means of raising money for large construction projects, according to Mr. Dyson. During his gubernatorial campaign, Governor Cuomo repeatedly opposed the proposed Arthur Kill plant, citing economic and environmental reasons. He promised to block construction of the plant if he was elected. His objections added to an already tempestuous debate over whether the proposed Arthur Kill plant posed a serious health hazard to Staten Island residents.