July 31, 1985

Storer Communications Inc. yesterday accepted an improved $2.03 billion acquisition offer from Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Company, while turning down a new bid made by the Comcast Corporation valued at $2.1 billion. Julian Brodsky, chief financial officer of Comcast, a cable company based in Bala-Cynwyd, Pa., said he was ''amazed and disappointed'' with Storer's decision to accept the lower bid. Under the Kohlberg, Kravis offer, shareholders would receive $91 a share in cash as well as a warrant to buy shares of stock in the company estimated to be worth an additional $3 a share, while Comcast's package of cash and stock was valued at $98 a share. Offer Worth More Paul Tierney, a member of the Storer board, conceded that the Comcast offer appeared to be worth about $4 a share more than Kohlberg, Kravis's new bid. But, he said, it would have been less favorable to Storer's shareholders on an after-tax basis. ''This was a good offer,'' Mr. Tierney said of the new Kohlberg, Kravis bid, but he agreed that the Comcast offer was also a good one.

An international labor delegation charged today that ''critical modifications'' in the design of the Union Carbide Corporation's plant in Bhopal, India, did not appear in diagrams released by the company and probably contributed to the gas leak that killed more than 2,000 people last December. The delegation, a 12-member team sent to India by two international labor federations, also said that management decisions to eliminate a maintenance supervisor position and to install a safety scrubber too small to handle a major gas leak contributed to the disaster. The delegation, whose findings were based on interviews with workers, attributed the accident to failures by the management of Union Carbide and its Indian subsidiary, Union Carbide India Ltd., to properly operate and maintain the plant. The Water Factor One of the most disputed aspects of the accident has been the question of how water was able to enter a storage tank containing the pesticide ingredient methyl isocyanate. The introduction of the water set off an uncontrollable chemical reaction that released the toxic fumes.

International Japan's Prime Minister urged Congress not to pass protectionist legislation, and he called on Japanese citizens to support his new program to increase imports. He also said other countries must help resolve the imbalance in international trade. [Page D1.] The White House reacted coolly to the Tokyo program, noting that it would take three years to become fully effective, and a number of Senators were skeptical. [D11.] The U.S. deficit in trade with Japan was a record $4.57 billion in June and $13.4 billion over all, the second highest on record, the Commerce Department said. [D11.] ''Critical modifications'' in the design of the Bhopal plant that do not appear in diagrams released by Union Carbide probably contributed to the disaster there, an international labor delegation charged. It based its findings on interviews with workers. [D1.]

Representative Dan Rostenkowski, President Reagan's most important Congressional ally on tax legislation, said today that the President's proposals for changing the Federal income tax system would be ''far too generous'' to wealthy Americans. The Illinois Democrat, who is the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said the legislation to be developed by his committee this fall would ''give middle-income working families a greater proportional share of tax relief.'' In a luncheon speech to the National Press Club, Mr. Rostenkowski expressed his personal views on tax matters more thoroughly than he had done at any other time publicly since the President submitted his tax plan to Congress two months ago. 'Very Much Alive' ''The quest for tax reform is very much alive,'' he declared, despite the current deadlock over the budget deficit. ''One day soon, we're going to raise taxes,'' he said, adding that, when the day eventually comes, the country will need ''a new tax code that gives us the revenue base to do it without hitting anyone or any business unfairly.''

PAIRING food and wine, like matching ties and shirts, was a less intimidating task a generation ago. In the same way that striped ties called for solid shirts and solid shirts meant sporting striped ties, everyone knew, with a reassuring certainty, that red wines went with meat and white wines went with fish. It was, admittedly, an oversimplification, but sticking to these rules meant not being embarrassed in polite company. By contrast, look at the muddled wine and food situation today. Repeating the incantation ''red wine with meat'' is little help when the dish is grilled duck breast under a roasted sweet pepper sauce studded with pine nuts and seasoned with fresh coriander. Or how about fusilli with radicchio and pancetta in a pink tomato-cream sauce? Not only has food become more complex as chefs of different nationalities borrow from one another's cupboards for inspiration, but also the selection of wines in restaurants and shops has expanded tremendously. There are labels from Australia, Chile, Hungary, Spain, Rumania and Argentina, to name a few, along with wines from hitherto unknown (at least to the wine world) regions in the United States, France and Italy. Then, too, there are new blends of old grapes, such as white zinfandels and blush wines.