April 25, 1986

The number of Federal and state subpoenas seeking evidence of municipal corruption has more than quadrupled since early February to nearly three dozen - including a sealed subpoena whose target prosecutors and city officials refused to identify. The subpoenas reveal the expanding scope of the various investigations - at least 15 separate inquiries now are under way. Also, they disclose which leads the investigators are pursuing, beyond those that already have resulted in charges involving the Parking Violations Bureau, the Health and Hospitals Corporation and the Taxi and Limousine Commission. Ameruso Files Sought Lawyers for the city said yesterday that these were among the documents prosecutors had requested: * Records of loans or payments made from the retirement funds of Anthony R. Ameruso, the former Transportation Commissioner. The request was made by Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn who have been looking into Mr. Ameruso's purchase of a lower Manhattan parking lot with, among others, a former Queens judge who has since been convicted of bribery.

Friday TALL TALES AND TRUE There will be many tales told in New York this weekend about ''why certain things came to be,'' as an African phrase describes the art of storytelling. None are likely to give the same explanation for any particular phenomenon, but no matter. Beginning tonight at City College's Aaron Davis Hall, a three-day conference on storytelling around the world will explore the tradition and feature some noted practitioners of the craft. Shared at the festival will be Creole and Hasidic tales; legends from the Skagit tribe of Puget Sound and the Lakota Sioux, and stories from Latin America, Ghana, China, Italy and elsewhere. The program opens tonight with remarks by Richard Lewis, an expert on children's literature, followed by a ''concert of storytellers'' that includes Muriel Bloch, a teller of North African and Middle Eastern tales; Peninnah Schram, who relates Jewish and Hasidic legends; Michael Parent, a French Canadian raconteur; Argentina Palacios, a Latin-American storyteller, and Mary Carter-Smith, the official ''griot'' (a French West African word for one who is both an oral historian and a poet) of Baltimore. A 9 P.M. concert by the folk singer Odetta, followed by a wine-and-cheese reception with all the performers, will follow. Tickets are $30 for the weekend ($10 for students with identification). A ticket for tonight alone costs $13.50; for tomorrow $23; and at Sunday's shows, a donation is requested. The hall is at Convent Avenue and 134th Street.

International President Reagan prepared for a trip to the Far East. He conferred with Congressional leaders and aides as he made ready for his longest journey in office, a 22,000-mile, 13-day trip. The journey will include meetings with Southeast Asian foreign ministers in Bali and with the leaders of other major industrial democracies in Tokyo. [ Page A1, Column 3. ] A pre-dawn bomb blast in London damaged a British Airways office and other stores on Oxford Street, the capital's busiest shopping area, spraying glass into the street and igniting a fire. One passer-by was treated for shock. [ A6:1-2. ]

IT is the alma mater of such captains of industry as George Weissman, former chairman of Philip Morris; Robert Rittereiser, president of E.F. Hutton; Carl Spielvogel of Backer & Spielvogel, the advertising agency, and David Margolis, chief executive of Colt Industries. Don Marron, chairman of Paine Webber, enrolled but left without a degree. ''It seems kind of unreasonable to claim him, since he took one year here,'' said Joel Segall, the president of Baruch College. ''He didn't take a year anywhere else,'' Stephen Wertheimer, Baruch's spokesman, pointed out.

Robert C. Byrd, the Senate Democratic leader, today joined four other Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee in petitioning Attorney General Edwin Meese 3d to consider the appointment of an independent counsel to investigate the lobbying efforts of Michael K. Deaver. Mr. Deaver, the former deputy White House chief of staff who is an intimate of President Reagan and his wife, Nancy, left the Government last May to form a lobbying firm that represents Canada, Singapore, South Korea, Mexico and Saudi Arabia, as well as foreign and domestic companies, including a military contractor. He has publicized his clients, government contacts and large fees in a manner that has led to Congressional criticism and several investigations. Senator Joseph R. Biden of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, who initiated the letter to Mr. Meese, said in an interview, ''There's enough evidence out there so that, on the face of it, it seems like there are some real problems.''